


The Ghost of You

by J_L_Hynde



Category: Vampire Knight (Anime & Manga)
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Twins, Blood Magic, Blood and Violence, Drama, F/F, F/M, Fae & Fairies, Gen, Kuran twins, Original Character(s), Plotting and scheming, Psychological Warfare, Search for a Cure, Sibling Bonding, Strong Female Characters, Twin AU, Vampire Politics, a story about family, complicated family, cutthroat purebloods, kaname has a twin, no shoujo
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-29
Updated: 2019-02-03
Packaged: 2019-07-04 06:46:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 24,961
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15835938
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/J_L_Hynde/pseuds/J_L_Hynde
Summary: Ayana ran her hands over his face. "Sometimes," she said, "I can't bear to look at you. It hurts too much...You look like my darling little brother, but you're not him. He's dead. They killed him and left you in his place. And, when I look at you all I see is a ghost of him and it breaks my heart."Ayana Kuran was the eldest child of Haruka and Juri and twin sister of Kaname—Well, not that Kaname. 16 years ago the Senate took her real little brother and left an impostor in his place. An impostor that answers to the same name and possesses the same likeness as her dearly departed brother. Now, she's allied herself with the new Kaname in hopes of reviving the ancestor's original body and freeing her real brother from his possession. But with no guarantee it will work or that her brother's mind will not be damaged beyond repair, the mounting hostilities between the Monarchies and the Senate, and the Inner Counsel's anti-Pureblood agenda; Ayana finds herself being a piece in a game of political chess with fake Kaname plotting out all the moves.(AU) Kaname/OC





	1. Parts 1-3

**I.**

She was the epitome of poise; her legs crossed over each other, firm supple calves exposed by the silky material of her dress. Yuki's eyes trailed up her figure, starting at the pair of cute wedge sandals on her feet to the peach-colored dress with tiny white beads embroidered on the bodice and skirt and the creme stitching of leaves to her glossy black hair and a pair of eyes of the deepest burgundy. There was a sort of vivaciousness superimposed over her whole face, but especially at the eyes. Eyes that she found extraordinarily arresting and as confounding, maybe even more so, as a harlequin mask. The young schoolgirl struggled for something to say, opening her mouth before she thought better of it and took a sip of her tea instead.

A smile crossed over the other woman's face as she lowered her teacup from her mouth, eyes twinkling from under her dark lashes. She looked amused by the situation and fully entertained by how flustered Yuki was. After the woman had complimented her on everything there possibly was to compliment someone on the petite brunette had flushed about a dozen different shades of red and was now staring into the cooling liquid of her rose tea, trying and failing to come up with a retort. Part of her, the skeptic in her brain, wondered if the woman was simply pulling her leg or if she truly meant all the wonderful things she had said. But there was such a look of earnestness on her face that Yuki felt that she couldn't be lying.

Her eyes scanned her again. Yuki felt her face growing hotter as she realized that her companion had stopped drinking her tea and was regarding her with thinly veiled humor. "Do I have crumbs on my face?" She asked. Her voice was smooth like melted butter with a slight raspy accent that made Yuki's stomach feel all fluttery.

"N-No," her voice squeaked embarrassingly and if at all possible she flushed even more. It felt like any minute she would keel over because her head would explode from all the heat trapped inside. She swallowed the lump in her throat and exclaimed rather loudly, "I love your dress!"

The woman was surprised by the proclamation, but her expression turned almost adoring as Yuki buried her face in her hands silently berating herself for being so socially awkward. A warm smile stretched across her face. "Yuki-chan is so cute," she cooed.

"I'm not really—"

"No you are," she corrected. "You're cute. Super cute.  _Super-mega_   _Kawaii!_ "

"K-Kuran-sempai you're embarrassing me," Yuki told her.

"Nope! No-no-no, we agreed," the woman shook her finger at her chidingly. "You promised to call me Ayana. Two Kurans is confusing, remember?"

Yuki nodded. "Sorry...Kur—I mean, Ayana-sempai."

Ayana gave her a smile that Yuki was sure could bewitch and steal the heart of any one of a thousand of the cruelest and coldest dictators. She felt stunned by it, but she was completely powerless to fight against it's contagiousness; her lips tugging upwards in response. Ayana brushed a strand of her inky black hair behind her ear, then leaned forward and offered the plate of rose-shaped apple tarts to her. "Would you like another?"

Yuki shook her head. "No, I've had four already," she said.

"I think I'm going to eat another," Ayana took one off the plate and bit into it with relish. "I shouldn't. I'm trying to lose weight, but these—" she let out a small sigh of pleasure as she chewed. "—these are too good to pass up."

"I think you look fine," Yuki said. "I mean, you're not fat. Definitely not fat."

"You're too kind. I know I'm not fat, but I'm not really thin either," she replied. "It's all that bread in Italy—bread and pasta and cheese and gelato— _Oh lord is that gelato heavenly._ But it does nothing for my figure. I've gone up two dress sizes since I've been there. It's a good thing that I'm so tall, otherwise, that weight would definitely show. Us vampires don't even need to eat that much, but I just love food, ya know? There are certain countries that I can't live in because I'd get so fat and Italy is one of them. That's part of the reason I moved back here, so I could get healthy again."

"I didn't realize vampires could gain weight like that," Yuki said interested.

Ayana nodded. "It's harder for us. We metabolize things faster and if we haven't fed in a while those extra calories are burned off like  _that,_ " she snapped her fingers for emphasis. "That's why level-Es look so thin any extra food they consume is used to curb their thirst."

"So eating large amounts of food can stop a vampire's need for blood?"

"Yes and no. It doesn't stop it per say. It only takes the edge off," she told her. "Think of blood kind of like water. For humans, you can last weeks, even months, without food. But no water, and you'll be lucky if you can last more than three days without dying. Even then you'd be severely dehydrated, weak with hallucinations and splitting migraines—It's the same thing for vampires."

A pensive look crossed over Yuki's face as she considered what she had just learned. "No one's explained it to me like that before," she said.

"Perhaps no one ever knew you wanted it explained," Ayana remarked casually. "Sometimes people assume you know things you don't actually know and the only way to correct them on that is if you ask. There are no wrong questions and the worst that can happen is that someone refuses to answer. And then, sometimes in not answering they give you an answer anyways."

The early morning sun was just beginning to peek through the drawn curtains as the two sat in the main hall of the Moon Dorm. The dorm was dead silent, except for the low shuffling of maids on the third floor, but they were so far away that it was indiscernible to human ears. The rest of the Night Class was currently at the main campus but were due to return any minute now. Yuki had escorted Ayana to the Moon Dorm after the upperclassmen had arrived in the early hours of the morning and insisted that Yuki stay for a cup of tea and give her the dish on the school and her classmates. One cup turned into two, then three, and then Ayana had requested that the maid bring out the apple tarts after Yuki's stomach let out an embarrassingly loud gurgle.

Yuki knew that she should've been getting back, and she felt some guilt over letting Zero continue patrols without her, but she found herself reluctant to leave Ayana. She was just so...interesting. Everything about her from how she spoke and sat and talked about, it was all so fascinating. This whole experience was by the far the most comfortable she's ever felt in the Moon Dorm and Yuki had no doubt in her mind it everything to do with the vampire sitting across from her.

 _That's right. She's a vampire._  Yuki reminded herself. There was something so warm and inviting about Ayana that over the past hour, the schoolgirl found herself forgetting that important fact. Also, she wasn't just any vampire, Ayana just so happened to be the elder twin sister of Kaname Kuran, the girl's crush and head of the Night Class. She was just as warm-hearted as her younger brother. But she also noticed that unlike Kaname, Ayana was a great deal more open with her expressions and thoughts which might've been a result of spending so much time overseas away from the cool and reserved Japanese society.

Suddenly, Ayana twitched her head towards the main door that same smile tugging at the corners of her mouth again. She set her cup and saucer on the white marble coffee table and almost on cue, the doors to the Moon Dorm swung open and in shuffled the rest of the Night Class with Kaname at the front. The dorm-president halted mid-stride, his head raising from the stack of papers in his hands to first glance at Yuki before sliding over to Ayana. The other students stopped behind him with looks of curiosity and confusion in equal measure.

Ayana stood up from the sofa and closed the distance between her and Kaname in the blink of an eye. She knocked into him with such a force that had he been human, she surely would've knocked him off his feet and flat on his back, but he had been prepared and only took a step back as she threw arms around his neck. The familiar scent of sugary wisteria blooms and fresh apricots engulfed his senses as he wrapped his arms securely around the woman's waist. Likewise, Ayana was overtaken by Kaname's earthy scent of cedar and spiced wine as she buried her face into his chest. This embrace only lasted for a split second, before Ayana pulled back and thoroughly shocked everyone present by placing a brief, but affectionate kiss on the man's mouth.

* * *

**II.**

Gasps of shock and, in some cases, offense echoed through the group of vampiric students. How dare she? How dare she! Assaulting a pureblood like that without his consent—Who did she think she was?

Had the other vampires been given more time to assess the situation, they would've immediately noticed the intoxicating scent and overpowering aura of the pureblood woman hugging their pureblood lord. But because most were still reeling from the suddenness of her actions, most did not correctly read the situation. So it was understandable and predetermined that at least one of them would intervene and pull Ayana away from Kaname.

It was not only one, but two vampires that saw it fit to get involved in the situation. Hanabusa Aidou and Ruka Souen were by far the most hot-headed and impulsive of the group, and it was them who responded to this display of (in their view) unwanted affection in a manner that one would expect.

"What do you think you're doing—"

"Touching Kaname-sama like that?"

Ayana more or less allowed herself to get yanked back by the two aristocrats. Had she wanted to, she could've easily stayed where she was while they tried fruitlessly to move her; but she knew that doing that would only result in injuries for them likely causing them to pull their own arms from their sockets. She carefully schooled her expression into one of indifference, but her eyes were overflowing with mirth as she regarded the two students.

Hanabusa was a man of medium height with a lithe build. He had messy blond hair, but messy in the way that it was styled to be that way and not that he rolled out of bed like that, along with a pair of frosted blue eyes. In contrast, Ruka was a tall and willowy woman standing about the same height as the man. She had long locks falling past her shoulders in thick sandy blonde waves and dark honey-colored eyes burning with (what she presumed) to be righteous indignation.

Ayana didn't flinch under their harsh gaze, nor did she pay any mind to the almost bruising grip they had on both of her upper arms. She cast a quick glance at Kaname, who while difficult to read at the best of times, looked for the time being perfectly content to let her get herself out of the hot water she had gotten herself into. She cocked her head slightly at the woman on her right and said in an innocent voice. "Huh? Am I doing it wrong?" She turned to look at the man, "How am I supposed to touch Kaname-sama? You both seemed to be experts at it."

If it was at all possible, Ruka and Hanabusa's faces turned purple as their heckles rose at what she had implied. "We would never!" They both yelled.

"Then how do you know I was doing it wrong?" She asked.

"We didn't say you were doing it wrong," Ruka said.

"Then I was doing it right?"

"No," Hanabusa cut in.

"Then how do you know if I was doing it wrong?" She repeated her question. They both sputtered as they tried to come up with a rebuttal to this illogical argument they found themselves in.

"Because you weren't doing it right!"

"But how do you know that if you have no basis for comparison?" She asked. "You need a control before you can test a hypothesis."

"What hypothesis?" Ruka was beyond exasperated at this point as was Hanabusa. This woman wasn't making any damn sense. Trying to explain this to her was like pulling teeth or explaining quantum theory to a newborn baby—Except newborns weren't this-this-this damn confusing.

Unbeknownst to the two aristocrats, the others had started to catch on to what was happening. They began to notice the sweet aroma wafting from her skin, an aroma that they all knew instantly to be belonging to a pureblood. One look at Kaname's face confirmed that not only was she a pureblood, but that she and the dorm-president were uncommonly familiar with one another. The dark-haired pureblood watched the scene in front of him with a small, infectious grin threatening to break out over his entire face. Takuma saw this and immediately put two and two together and had to clamp a hand over his mouth for fear that his laughing would ruin the game that was being played.

"The only way I see we can settle this," she started, "is if we ask the source." Ayana turned her eyes to her brother. By now she was barely keeping her composure, but one look at Kaname's small smile and the warmth he held in his eyes, directed to her and her alone, had her sobering as a genuinely bashful look passed over her face. He had changed a lot in the last ten years. His face losing all the round softness of childhood leaving behind sharp angles and finally growing into his deep soulful eyes.

 _He looks so much like father._  She considered with a bit of melancholy.

The last time she had seen Kaname was the last time she had seen her father as well. Now, she was no longer the big sister that was taller than him and could outrun him with her longer legs, but she had become the little sister that just so happened to be born first. Likewise, she too had matured over the years leaving behind the thin waifish figure and knobbly knees and stick arms and legs; thickening out and gaining soft curves on her hips and bust. Her hair she had kept relatively the same, long with her bangs cropped just above her eyes, but she now used a product to bring out more of her natural waves. Naturally, her face had become more defined sharpening her cheekbones and jawline. By far the biggest change for her though was probably her skin tone. After having spent years in the warm Tuscan sunshine, Ayana had developed a sun-kissed complexion reminiscent of the locals. It was that change that had confused Kaname when he first saw her, he didn't recognize her in that moment, until that scent had enveloped him, cocooning around him like a loving embrace reminding him of a home he had lost.

Ayana blinked bringing herself back to the present. She plastered on a sickeningly saccharine smile and in her best naively innocent voice asked, "Kaname-sama what is the right way to touch you?"

Hanabusa and Ruka were beside themselves with embarrassment at how suggestive that question sounded. It looked as if any moment now they either wanted to throttle the woman or crawl into a deep dark hole in the ground and never come out again. "Don't phrase it like that!"

"Like what?"

"Like you want to have sex with him," Ruka said.

Ayana's expression turned into one of repulsion at the very idea; quirking her brow upwards. "Why would I want to have sex with my twin brother?" She asked her, then turning to Hanabusa added, "You two have some weird fetishes."

She had effectively doused the two aristocrats in icy cold water with that statement, draining the fight out of them along with the color from their complexions. They looked between her and Kaname, seeing for the first time the similar features they both shared. As if to add insult to injury, Kaname calmly said, " _Aneki*,_  you've tortured them enough. Tell everyone here who you are to avoid any more confusion."

"Alright," she said turning to the two aristocrats at her sides. " _Hajimemashita**._  My name is Kuran Ayana. I very much look forward to working with you, Souen-san and Aidou-san, in the upcoming months."

* * *

_*Here Kaname refers to Ayana in a really informal word for big sister. Essentially it means "Sis."_

_**This is a phrase that you say when you introduce yourself in Japan. Essentially it can be translated as "How do you do?"_

* * *

**III.**

They weren't sure what they were expecting. But this certainly wasn't it.

Above all else, purebloods were considered with an almost god-like reverence in Vampiric Society. To slight a pureblood, even indirectly, was a punishable offense that at the very least could result in that person or persons exile and or imprisonment. What Ruka and Hanabusa had done had in no way been a small thing. If Ayana so chose she could've easily taken off their heads right then and there and no one would've made any move to stop her. The knowledge of that and knowing that that was the punishment that the two aristocrats rightfully deserved for daring to lay their hands on a pureblood, Hanabusa and Ruka felt as if they were staring Death in the face.

Death, who was smiling at them so kindly, so warmly as to melt away all the icy tension in the air.

Ayana moved so that she could embrace Ruka in a one-armed hug, placing a quick kiss on both of the woman's cheeks. Then she repeated the same action with Hanabusa, leaving them both stunned with a light flush to their faces. The pureblood spun on her heels and bowed her head. "I apologize for any confusion my actions caused. I've been out of the country for quite some time and I'm afraid that I've forgotten how things are done here. Back in Italy, it's commonplace to greet an old friend or family member with a kiss," she raised her head looking at them both. "I do hope we can become friends as I want the two of you to help me with my research...That is if I can manage to steal you both away from Kaname- _otouto*_."

The aristocrats were speechless. This was not how purebloods were supposed to behave. They were supposed to be cool, stoic, and above all else totally untouchable. The way Ayana addressed them was so casual as if they had been friends their entire lives. Many would take this as a sign of weakness, but they saw something—something in her eyes—that made them think that this display was a cleverly orchestrated ploy. The pureblood had effectively bound their hands, rendering them powerless to refuse her wishes. Not that they could refuse the wishes of a pureblood to begin with. But their previous actions made even the act of hesitating impossible.

"Of course, Kuran-sama," Ruka said as calmly as she could. Her honey eyes flickered to Hanabusa nervously as he too nodded his head in agreement.

Ayana's eyes sparkled. "Oh really? You both mean it?" She embraced them both letting out a gleeful laugh. "I'm so excited," she said. "You both would be invaluable to my work. I've been a huge fan of you two for years. Souen-san your dissertation on the effect of Alzheimer's on the brain was so insightful and inspirational. And Aidou-san your work with pharmaceuticals and research into hereditary illnesses and genetic disorders is unparalleled."

If it was at all possible Hanabusa and Ruka's faces turned redder than a boiled lobster at Ayana's praise. They were already embarrassed by misreading the situation between her and Kaname, but having the pureblood compliment them so fervently and honestly after they had treated her so rudely was humbling. Surely, they were undeserving of such praise and it only caused these insurmountable feelings of shame and guilt to arise in their hearts.

Simultaneously they bowed their heads low, surprising Ayana. "We're so sorry, Kuran-sama. Please forgive us," they said.

"Oh? What for?" She asked.

"We were both so harsh with you—"

"Ah," Ayana brought her hands forward to lift their heads. Her expression was soft, almost loving like a mother's. "We all make mistakes," she said. "The only thing we can do is to ensure that we remember and learn from them so that they aren't ever repeated. After all, you cannot truly push the boundaries of science without stumbling along the way. I'll admit, I'm relieved my brother has found such passionate supporters that they would jump into the unknown unafraid of the consequences. It makes me feel better after having left him on his own for so long knowing that he's been looked after. So thank you very much!"

"Y-You're welcome," they said, but it sounded more like a question.

"Also I must insist that you call me Ayana," she added. "Two Kurans is a bit confusing, to be honest. I wouldn't know sometimes if you were addressing me or Kaname."

That they could agree to easily. "Of course, Ayana-sama," they said.

Ayana clapped her hands together, "Alright then that's settled. Now, I do believe I've been blocking the other students from fully entering the dorm. Sorry about that!" She stepped out of the way and gesturing with her hands for the others to pass her. As they passed her, she introduced herself to some of them, shaking their hands, thanking them for their hard work, as well as wishing them all a good days rest.

A blond vampire approached her with excitement brimming in his bright clover eyes. "Ayana-sama, I'm Ichijou Takuma," he shook her hand enthusiastically, his voice overflowing with boyish charm.

"Of course! Takuma-kun," she grinned pulling the tall man down for a hug. "I remember you. We used to play together as children, right?"

"That's right! I'm flattered you remember me," he said.

"How could I forget? You were the one who often helped me drag Kaname out of the house, away from his old smelly poetry books to play outside like a normal kid," she reminisced; a teasing smile pulling at the corners of her mouth. "I remember the time I stole his copy of  _Man'yōshū**_  and he chased us all the way up that old red pine at the edge of my parent's property."

"I remember. That was also when you fell and Kaname refused to let you walk back to the manor on your own. He carried you the whole way," Takuma said.

"Even though I wasn't hurt," she laughed. "He was so stubborn."

"Still is," he told her.

"It's good to know some things haven't changed," she cast an affectionate look over to her brother as he was conversing with Yuki. He said something that made the girl flush and shake her head wildly back and forth, before bowing her head and speed walking to the door. Ayana saw this an called out to her before she left. The brunette stopped and turned her head to the pureblood. "Thank you for keeping me company this evening," Ayana said. "I'm sorry for keeping you away from your prefect duties."

"Ah—no it's okay," Yuki replied. "I had a really nice time talking with you sempai. T-Thank you for the tea and tarts."

"Of course." She nodded, "It was my pleasure. We should do it again sometime."

"S-Sure," the girl flushed then, turned her head casting a fleeting glance over her shoulder at Kaname. There was a flicker of something in her eyes, an emotion of longing, then she turned back to the pureblood. "I have to be going now."

"Then I won't keep you any longer," Ayana smiled. "Have a nice rest of your day, Yuki-chan."

"Same to you— _Uh—_ pleasant dreams and whatnot," she said. Then without further ado, Yuki opened one of the large wooden doors and stepped outside into the early morning sun.

Ayana watched her go with a bittersweet smile. "She's such a kind person," she remarked to Takuma.

The blond nodded his head in agreement. "Yes, Yuki is very nice. Your brother has a soft spot for her," he said.

"A crush?" She asked jokingly.

He shrugged. "I don't know to be honest. I think—I mean it's possible, I suppose. But you know Kaname, he always plays things so close to the chest."

"That's true," she agreed. Ayana turned her head away from the blond as Kaname approached them from the side. There were still a few stragglers in the main hall, but most had opted to head up to their rooms in order to get ready for bed. The ones that remained were Hanabusa, Ruka, and a tall, tanned broad-shouldered man with spiky auburn hair. They were congregated at the top of the stairs looking down on them. Ayana waved and the two aristocrats jolted as they blush at being caught in their obvious eavesdropping. The other man ushered them to continue on down the hall, leaving the three vampires alone.

Takuma greeted the other pureblood warmly. "You're sister and I were just reminiscing about the past when we were children," he said.

Kaname raised his brows in interest. "Is that so?"

Ayana smiled and leaned into Kaname's side as he came to stand beside her. "Yep. We were remembering that time you insisted on carrying me back to the house, even though I wasn't hurt," she said. "Do you remember that?"

"Yes. You were very heavy," he said and Ayana scoffed, smacking his arm lightly.

"Rude."

"It was the truth," Kaname said not looking the least bit apologetic. "And you kicking and yelling did not help matters either."

"Well, maybe I would've been more cooperative if you hadn't insisted on throwing me over your shoulder all caveman-style," she said.

"Perhaps," he agreed, "but you wouldn't have learned your lesson not to steal other people's property if I had given you a piggyback ride."

Ayana sent him a playful glare, then sighed turning her attention back to Takuma. "See, five seconds and we're already bickering. You're lucky you're an only child," she said.

The blond smiled between the two purebloods, noticing how Kaname was lightly touching his elder sister. His freehand instinctually brushing along her own, not grabbing, but hanging by his side. Ayana didn't seem to mind the contact and stepped closer to him, looping her arm through his own. "I don't know...I think it's kind of sweet," he said. "It's been so long, but it's almost like nothing has really changed between you two."

"A lot of things have changed," Ayana said, "although I understand what you mean." She glanced up at Kaname and smiled, "I did miss him." The warmth that shone through her eyes was a bit overwhelming and for a moment she felt overcome with emotions. She didn't know whether she wanted to laugh or cry, but seeing her dear brother after so many years apart—She felt in that moment indescribably happy.

Kaname's eyes reflected these same conflicted emotions back to her. She had always possessed the uncanny ability to read him better than anyone else. Perhaps it was because they were twins and somehow they were both still psychically linked, even after everything that happened in their pasts. He never needed to tell her much, not when he could convey something with a mere look. It wasn't necessary for him to say anything back, Ayana knew just by looking at him that he had missed her too.

* * *

_*This the Japanese word for little brother._

_**This literally translates into "The Collection of Ten Thousand Leaves". It is the oldest existing collection of Japanese poetry gathered sometime after AD 759 during the Nara Period._


	2. Parts 4-7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The twins have a complicated relationship with an even more complicated history.

**IV.**

After chatting a few more minutes with Takuma and Kaname, Ayana politely bid the two of them good night and headed up the stairs to her room. Her room was on the third floor. There were only two rooms on the third floor. Both were two large suites with a bedroom, living or study area, and a private bathroom. The other suite was of course occupied by Kaname and faced the north side of the academy's campus with views of the surrounding forests. Ayana's suite faced the south side of the campus and overlooked the Moon Dorm's outer courtyard and main gate.

The maids had been busy for the last several hours cleaning and unpacking Ayana's belongings that she had sent ahead of herself before arriving at the academy. When she arrived in her room there were two maids still fluttering about her study as they unloaded great heaps of books, organizing them on the built-in bookshelves that took up an entire wall of the room. The maids paused in their work and bowed their heads low. "Ayana-sama," they said.

Ayana smiled warmly at them and told them that they were free to go to bed and that she would finish the unpacking. They bowed again and exited out of the room, leaving the pureblood woman alone. She looked around at the dark shapes of the furniture. A chaise lounge sat by a large double-pane window with the thick heavy curtain drawn to block out any light. She walked up to this curtain and pulled it aside to allow the room to flood with natural sunlight from outside. The golden rays reflected off the strands of her hair giving the inky locks an almost bluish tint. She watched curiously as the black uniforms of the Day class students passed by on the other side of the main gate heading towards the main campus building.

A pensive look came over her face as she watched the bustle. She stood there for some time staring, but not really seeing. Then with a heavy sigh that told of the great burden she had on her heart, Ayana turned away from the window leaving the curtain open.

She spent the next fifteen minutes under the warm spray of the showerhead, ridding herself of all the grime that she had picked up from traveling and leaving herself feeling fresh and smelling strongly of floral shampoo. She quickly dried herself off with one of the soft white towels and changed into a light-weight pajama set that included a pair of rose-printed silk shorts with a white lace trim and a matching camisole top. Then moving over to the medicine cabinet, she filled a glass of water and dropped in two blood tablets.

Ayana watched the tablets dissolve with a look of childlike wonderment. Knowing just how much thought, time, and effort went into making these things allowed her to hold a certain amount of appreciation for the small pills. For many blood tablets were something to be scoffed at, even repulsed by for they left little to be desired in terms of taste. But from the viewpoint of a scientist herself, Ayana was able to appreciate just how difficult and tortuous the task of creating an artificial blood substitute had been.

It had taken the Night Class two years to create these miracle tablets—Yes, miracle tablets. To create a blood substitute that a vampire's body won't reject was nothing short of miraculous. It had been simple enough to engineer the pills with the necessary nutrients that vampires needed, however when it came down to those nutrients being absorbed into the body that was when the Night Class had hit a snag. A vampire's body is unique in that it has an almost impenetrable immune system. This had in part to do with the increase in white blood cells in their blood as vampires had almost double the average human white blood cell count. As a result of this superhuman immune system, most modern-day medicines were ineffective on vampires as they were quickly isolated as threats and expelled from the body. The trick of the blood tablets was that Night Class had found a way to infuse the tablets with a diluted source of pigs blood, thereby tricking the body into accepting it. Still, on the rare cases, the tablets were still rejected by some vampires, although this phenomenon seemed to be more common with ex-humans than it was with natural-born vampires.

She raised the now translucent red liquid to her lips and drank. It had a bitter taste, salty with a hint of something coppery and acidic. It was a taste that she had been told was very similar to how blood tasted to humans. Although it wasn't the taste that most found unpalatable, as horrible as it was, it was the texture sticky, but gritty like sand with a soggy wet papery feel on your tongue. It had taken her at least four tries to get used to it, but even Ayana had to admit that she had to force herself to drink it.

She brushed her teeth afterward in order to get rid of the taste. Then turned off the light and exited the bathroom. As she entered the bedroom, she instantly became aware of the other pureblood perched at the foot of her bed. She paid him no mind as she walked over to her vanity table and sat down with her back to him. Ayana watched Kaname carefully through the reflection of the looking glass as she proceeded to finger comb a styling product through her still damp waves. He was still dressed in his school uniform but had seen it fit to discard the tie, vest, and white jacket leaving him in the black button up and white slacks. "Couldn't sleep?" she asked him.

"No," he said adjusting his position slightly, "I was waiting for you."

"Oh?" She paused raising one of her thin dark brows. "What for?"

"I can't allow you to take both Souen and Aidou away from their current work," he said.

Ayana turned around to look at him, a frown pulling at the corners of her mouth. "You can't allow me?" She repeated those words slowly not liking the taste of them in her mouth. "Since when do you allow me to do or don't do anything? When did you get so authoritarian?"

Kaname was frowning as well, his dark brows furrowing together. "That's not what I meant. Let me rephrase," he said. "The blood tablets are still in its experimental stages. There's a lot of kinks to work out and Aidou is the most capable in that area."

Ayana turned around and continued to finger comb her hair. "So what you're really saying is I can't have Aidou-kun, but you're completely fine with me taking Souen," she inferred. "That sounds a bit harsh,  _Otouto_. Can't you muster up at least a little consideration for a woman who is so obviously in love with you? How do you think she would feel if she knew you cared so little about her contributions?"

Kaname purposely chose to ignore that comment. "As you're well aware, it was Aidou who was instrumental in the current success of the tablets," he said.

"Yes," Ayana's voice sounded bored. "Why do you think I want him? If anyone here possesses the level of ingenuity that my research requires, it would be him." She put away her hair products and stood, closing the distance between the both of them. She sat down on at the foot of the bed beside him, turning so that she could face him. "Clearly what we have here is a conflict of interest."

Her hand slowly began to slide up his arm to the back of his neck and sliding through his soft chocolate-colored hair, her short nails scraping against his scalp. Kaname closed his eyes; seeming for the time to be enjoying her ministrations. "That's not going to work Ayana," he said.

"No?" An amused look passed over her faces as her brother let out an involuntary shiver when her nails passed over a particularly sensitive patch of skin. "From where I'm sitting it looks like it is," she said.

Suddenly, Kaname grabbed her small wrist and spun them so that he was pinning her on her back to the bed. His eyes flashed briefly with a vermillion luster as he leaned down towards her face, however, Ayana was overall insouciant in the face of this obvious intimidation tactic and grinned up at him. "That's not going to work on me," she said. "You have to try  _this_."

Then she flipped them so that she was on top with her forearm pressed down to his neck. Not enough to hurt but it was enough so that he could feel her weight threatening to bear down on him. Her lashes brushed against the sides of his face as she leaned down towards his ear. "You feel how my arm is pressed against your throat…if you're going to try to threaten me, then you have to make me think you mean it. Otherwise, it's no fun." She sat back with a smile, letting him sit up then wrapped her arms around his neck and nuzzled her nose against his cheek. "Can't we settle this like we used to?"

Kaname had a look on his face that said he had grown bored with the conversation. His hands pushed her back slightly so he could see her face. "If we do will you accept the outcome? Even if it's not in your favor?"

"Of course! Rock, paper, scissors is sacred," she said seriously. She slipped her arms from behind his neck and maneuvered her hands into the starting position. "On three, okay?"

He nodded.

_One._

_Two._

_Three!_

"Yes!" Ayana cheered as her scissors cut up Kaname's paper. "I win! Aidou-kun is mine. No hard feelings, right?" She placed a chaste kiss on his cheek and slipped off his lap, "Goodnight." Then she crawled up the bed and slipped under the fluffy white duvet and Egyptian Cotton sheets. She fluffed up some of the pillows behind her head and fell against them.

"You mind hitting the lights on your way out?" She told him as she closed her eyes with a victorious smirk tugging at the corners of her mouth.

* * *

**V.**

Even though her eyes were closed, Ayana was still hyper-aware of Kaname's eyes watching her. A heavy silence encroached on the room making Ayana twitch uncomfortably. Then she felt Kaname's weight lift off the bed and a second later the bright artificial light was flicked off. She let out a pleased sigh and then snuggled more into the pillows; flipping on her side and hugging one of the many down pillows to her chest. She buried her nose into the fabric of the pillowcase inhaling the scent of fresh laundry before she became aware of another more aromatic bouquet still permeating the air.

Ayana's eyes cracked open when Kaname pulled back the covers of her bedding and laid down beside her. "Are you sleeping here?" She asked sounding neither for or against the idea. Kaname turned on his side to face her. From this distance she could see that his eyes were slightly bloodshot, worn out looking.  _When was the last time he slept?_  She wondered with growing concern. Her hand searched out his face, stroking her thumb under his eye and the dark circle that was beginning to show there. "Geeze, you look awful," she said. "What's wrong? Why haven't you been sleeping?"

He made a noncommittal sound through his nose causing Ayana to frown. "It's nothing," he said.

"Bullshit," she said. "I'm not an idiot Kaname and I don't appreciate being treated as such."

"I'm fine," he assured her, brushing his lips softly against her palm. "You don't need to make such a scary face  _Nee-chan_."

True to his words, Ayana was scowling at him as if he had done her some great injustice—which she could argue that he had. For him not to tell her that he was struggling or why was, to her, incredibly insulting. She wasn't a child anymore. She didn't need him to protect her from things. She knew what he was thinking. That the reason he was trying to downplay it was because he didn't want to drag her down with his burdens. Kaname was self-sacrificing to the point of being a martyr which was so very irritating— _Dammit!_  She raised herself up where she was leaning over him, one arm supporting her weight, while her other hand gripped his jaw firmly. "Don't make me bite you," she said. "Either you tell me right now or I'll drink your blood and find out that way."

"You'll stain the sheets," he told her.

"Does it look like I give a fuck?"

They both stared at each other in a silent battle of wills for some time. Kaname's eyes cold and placid, while Ayana's were brimming with barely subdued ire. Then something shifted in the man's face, an indescribable emotion before he tilted his head to the side as a sign of acquiescing. "Go ahead then," he said.

Ayana glared down at him, her irritation growing. He was baiting her. He didn't think she'd follow through on her threat. In fact, she was sure that he was counting on her backing down. That might've worked when they were kids, but this was a whole different ball game now. She was a grown-ass woman of twenty and two years. Sure, he may have had several millennia on her technically, but things had changed. She had grown both physically, emotionally, and mentally. She'd experienced a wide variety of things in her relatively short life. Pain, anger, betrayal, love, and loss had all left scars on her soul. There wasn't anything that the old man could dish out, that Ayana couldn't handle.

Her eyes trailed along the pale white skin of his neck. The thin membrane would be no harder to puncture than the skin of an apple; her sharp canines would tear through his flesh like a warm knife through butter, then the taste of that intoxicating blood would pool into her mouth—Ayana swallowed thickly as her throat began to feel dry. She felt herself becoming in tune with Kaname's heartbeat. The steady  _thump-a-thump_  echoed in her head like a bass drum.

Kaname's eyes watched her with an almost appraising look. He saw the specs of vermillion in Ayana's eyes like shards of broken glass scattered around her pupils. They were slowly bleeding into each other, growing each second more vivid in color. She blinked at him slowly, her eyes fixated on a certain spot on his neck, placing her hand on the other side of his head. Then slowly—so very, very slowly—Ayana lowered her mouth down to the juncture where his neck met his shoulder, placing a featherlight kiss there. Kaname closed his eyes at the sensation as Ayana trailed soft kisses and playful nibbles of her fangs against his skin. She was in no hurry to bite down and draw blood and at the time seemed perfectly content to work the other pureblood into a frenzy with her touches.

Suddenly, Ayana pulled back. He blinked up at her dazedly as she lightly brushed a strand of hair from his eyes. Something flashed on her face too quick for him to catch before she let out a yawn, placing her hand in front of her mouth. "Goodnight little brother," she said; then she sunk back to her side of the bed with her back facing him. "Try to get some rest, alright? We have school in a couple hours."

Kaname stared at the back of her head for some time wondering what had caused that display of intimacy and her subsequent and somewhat speedy withdrawal. It wasn't anything that Ayana had ever done previously and it left him feeling conflicted. Had he perhaps pushed her too far? Was she still angry at him? Or maybe she was angrier? The second option was very likely. Ayana had always been somewhat of a hot-headed child. As he recalled there were several times she had simply blown up at him because he was behaving quote-unquote "too much like an old man in a child's body". She used to get onto him for talking like he was an old samurai with the big, articulate, and oftentimes outdated words that he used.

_You'll never be able to pass yourself off as a kid at this rate._

A smile tugged at his lips as he remembered the disapproving face of a chubby-cheeked Ayana as she educated him on the proper way to interact with the other vampire children. She used to be so cute back then...Kaname touched the side of his neck still feeling the damp trail of her kisses. A feeling welled up inside him, one that he had some difficulty pinpointing and when he did he immediately expelled it from his mind.  _Not possible,_  he told himself. He didn't let himself dwell on that insidious thought that had crossed through his mind, nor would he ever admit it to anyone, not even himself, that for the briefest moment he had fervently desired more of Ayana's kisses. Kaname cast one last look at the back of his sister's head, then decidedly he turned his back on her and tried to drift off into a fitful sleep ignoring, as best he could, the smell of wisteria and the sudden dryness of his throat.

* * *

**VI.**

The young boy sat in the plush armchair by the hearth; the glow from the crackling fire illuminating his cherub-like features that were drawn together in a look of serious contemplation. He held in his hands a copy of  _The Tale of Genji*_  that he had been reading for the past hour or so. He had been so much absorbed into the story that he neither noticed the passing of time or the absence of his sister from the sofa opposite him. That was just as well, he supposed, Ayana never seemed particularly fond of his presence when he was around and had taken to the habit of ignoring him whenever possible. It had been about six months since he had been awakened from his hibernation and assumed the life of the youngest Kuran child, Kaname. In that time, he had more or less fallen into a rhythm of how the things worked around there, however, he was still finding it difficult to truly connect with any of his new family.

Juri, his mother, had been a weeping jittery mess. Barely able to be in the same room as him, much less hold a conversation as she would often have to excuse herself during meals so that she wouldn't cry at the table. His father, Haruka, had fared slightly better. He at least tried to make their new charge feel welcomed. But he still saw in his eyes the mistrust and sometimes outright aversion the man held for him. Ayana, though, had been a conflicting whirlwind of emotions from the minute he stepped through the door. At first, she had been crying, hugging him, showering his face with wet sloppy kisses. But then as soon as she had gotten a good look at his face, she had started screaming, hitting him, calling him a monster. It had taken both Haruka and Juri to pull the young vampire off of him and it was then that the family learned the truth. That Kaname, the youngest pureblood-child of the Kuran family, was no more. He had been sacrificed in order to resurrect one of the four original ancestors and that the Kaname they saw in front of them was nothing more than a disguise for this ancient.

A heavy cloud had descended over the household after the family had somewhat grudgingly accepted this new Kaname into their home once it became known exactly which ancient he was. Then things continued on as normally as they could given the circumstances. For the most part, Kaname was left to his own devices and he had taken up with the family's extensive library as a result.

Kaname's eyes flickered off the page as Haruka entered the room. The tall man was carrying a stack of thick, heavy tomes under his arm, to which he deposited on one of the many bookshelves, and regarded him with a friendly, but cool nod. "Good evening," he said and Kaname responded in kind. He walked over to the sofa and began picking up the discarded coloring book and crayons Ayana had left there, placing the items on the mahogany coffee table, before then sitting down across from the boy. "What are you reading?" He asked leaning forward to catch a glimpse of the book's title. " _The Tales of Genji?_ Ah, you're a fan of the classics aren't you?"

"I'm just catching up," the boy told him.

Haruka nodded and leaned back in his seat. "I suppose you have a lot to catch up on," he said. "I recommend that you read  _Konjaku Monogatarishu**_  if you haven't already. It's a collection of folk stories from throughout Asia."

"Thank you. I'll be sure to add it to my list," Kaname said. He studied the other vampire with old wise eyes, noticing how the man shifted a strand of his dark hair from his eyes as he stared out the uncovered window.

It was nearing the early hours of the morning and outside the light was beginning to brighten up the snowy landscape of the manor's garden. There he could see Ayana in a warm winter coat and hat running through the tall snow-covered hedges playing tag with a large black dog. A look of fatherly affection passed over Haruka's face as he watched her tackle the huge hound into a pile of powder. Then a look of melancholy overtook him as he turned back to the boy. "You didn't want to play outside with your sister?" He asked.

Kaname shrugged his small shoulders. "I don't think I'd be welcomed," he said causing the man to frown. "Besides I'm a bit too old for games."

"I suppose…" Haruka agreed somewhat reluctantly. "It'd be good for you though to be up and about more. With how your body is now, you need exercise and fresh air in order to stay healthy. Juri and I worry about you cooped up in here all night by yourself."

"Is that why Ayana has been coloring in here as of late?" Kaname asked him. He had long come to suspect that their parents had told Ayana to spend more time with him. It was mutually understood between the twins that Ayana would rather be anywhere else than around him and that Kaname was perfectly content to let her do just that. So the only way the girl would've been spending an hour in the library with him every night was if their parents had strictly told her to.

"Ah, I see you figured it out."

"It wasn't that difficult," Kaname said.

"I'm sorry," Haruka's expression turned somber as he regarded the small boy. "We haven't been making this transition easy for you."

"It's alright," he told his father. "I understand that this is difficult for your family. We all need time to adjust."

A look of mutual understanding passed between the both of them. Neither really knowing what to say to the other that hasn't already been said. Haruka stood up from the sofa and closed the small distance between himself and the boy, embracing him while placing a soft kiss on the crown of his head. "Thank you for being so understanding about this," he said. "Juri and I meant what we said about taking you in as our own. You may not be our son, but we are family. From now on we're all going to make more of an effort in including you." The man smiled, then ruffled Kaname's soft chocolate locks. "But you have to start making an effort as well, alright?"

"Yes, sir—"

"Dad," Haruka corrected. "If you're going to be my son, you're going to have to call me dad. No more of this 'Sir' and 'Ma'am' stuff for me or your mother."

"Okay...Dad," Kaname said somewhat hesitantly, testing the word out on his tongue. It had a pleasant ring to it, warm and safe just like the hug he had received.

"Then that's settled." Haruka stood up to his full height and looked down at him smiling, "I have to leave to attend a meeting with the Inner Council, your mother is upstairs resting. She has been a bit under the weather lately, so would you go outside and call in your sister before bedtime?"

"Sure." Kaname closed his book and set it on the end table beside his armchair. Then he slid off the chair as gracefully as he could given his size. It had been somewhat of a challenge for him to get used to being in a child's body again. He found that it was harder to do the things that he used to, harder to get the things he wanted, especially if they were placed in high places, and it took longer to get to where he was going. Kaname looked up at Haruka and asked, "When will you be back?"

"I shouldn't be gone long," he replied. "I'll be back even before midday, so you don't need to worry." The man smoothed down a stray strand of the child's hair. "You'll take care of your mother and sister for me while I'm gone."

Kaname nodded and Haruka smiled before bidding him goodnight and exiting out of the library. The boy turned from the direction of the door and walked over to the window, looking outside. He stared out into the snowy wonderland immediately spotting Ayana in her white knit-hat with the bright red poof on top, like the center on a target, bobbing around the bushes. The large black dog, which really wasn't anything more than their father's familiar, was crouched low behind the garden's stone fountain waiting for the little girl to pass by. It didn't have to wait long for Ayana came darting out behind a hedge a moment later, and the dog pounced, throwing the small vampire into a pile of snow. Ayana's laughter filled the air as the large beast began licking her face as she pushed it off her and stood.

Suddenly, the girl seemed to tense and she halted her actions, her head swiveling around to stare at him through the window. Her expression turned cold as she looked at him as it had since that first night. He wondered if there would ever be a time that she would no longer look at him with such contempt. Not that he could blame her. No, he didn't blame her for any of it. He couldn't find it in himself to disagree with why she hated him either, for he knew he would've likely behaved in the same way had he been in her place. Kaname let out a sigh and gestured for her to come inside. Ayana nodded in understanding before running off towards the back entrance of the house with the dog close on her heels.

* * *

_*Many, if not most, literary critics and aficionados consider The Tale of Genji humanity's first novel. At least in the format familiar today, anyways. Featuring over 400 characters, though focusing on the life of only one, it provides history buffs a glimpse into Japanese life under the feudal system. In spite of this epic scope, Murasaki Shikibu masterfully maintains internal consistency._

_**Only 28 of the original 31 volumes of Konjaku Monogatarishu survive today. Thousands of folk stories from across Asia, including India and China, come together thanks to the efforts of a currently unknown compiler. Many believe it was a Buddhist monk's doing, and the exact date of its inception is unknown too._

* * *

**VII.**

As much as she tried, sleep did not come to her. Ayana laid there for what seemed like hours, staring dazedly at the large armoire in the corner of the room while tracing the intricately carved spirals of the cherry wood with her eyes. She would count the spirals, starting at the center, and assigning each a Fibonacci number. It was her substandard attempt at directing her thoughts elsewhere—specifically away from the man sleeping next to her and his tantalizing scent that had affected her so ardently.

To say she was embarrassed would've been a gross understatement of the vampire's current state of mind. She was mortified. It wouldn't have been so bad, she supposed, if she had simply bitten down on Kaname's neck and drunk his blood like he had dared her to. That would've been fine. Easy even, he would've been asking for it. But she didn't do that. No, what she did had crossed a line from that of platonic love for a brother into a feeling that she was not at all comfortable associating with him. She blamed herself partly for her lack of propriety as it had been far too long since she had been that intimate with anyone, vampire or otherwise. But she also blamed Kaname too, as illogical as it was to do so, for if he hadn't goated her like that—if he hadn't offered himself up like a gourmet meal on a silver platter, she wouldn't have been put in that position to act so rashly.

She had missed him that much was clear. She didn't know how much she really would miss him until she saw him again. They had such a rocky history; even up towards the end before she left for Italy, she and Kaname had, only at best, been friends. Nonetheless, it became clear to her that something had changed in her absence. Feelings she didn't know she had, had bubbled up to the surface leading her to lose her equilibrium. She felt unsettled by his presence or more her involuntary reaction to his presence. That's what it had been an entirely impulsive and involuntary reaction to his scent—nothing more. She had been drawn to it inadvertently and some dormant instinct had taken over as soon as she had a taste of Kaname's soft smooth skin.

The woman brought her hand up and wrapped it around her throat, swallowing thickly. The memory of the salty-sweet musky taste of her brother was still at the forefront of her mind. She tried to ignore it; but it seemed the more she tried to push the thought out of her mind, the more it persisted. She tried everything from counting backward from a thousand to reciting the names of current Japanese politicians to counting spirals on the armoire—none of it worked with any degree of success and so Ayana was left with only the option to remove herself as far away from temptation as possible.

Ayana slipped out of bed extraordinarily slowly so as not to wake her light-sleeper of her brother. Her bare feet touched the soft rug under the bed thankfully muting any sound from her footsteps as she crossed over to the bathroom and grabbing her thin, blue cotton bathrobe and a small case of blood tablets, she quietly tiptoed out of the room letting the door click softly behind her. A sigh of relief left her lips as the scent had been greatly masked behind the door, allowing her to finally regain some of her shaky composure.

With a level head, Ayana was able to think more rationally. She knew she was behaving reprehensibly. Someone of her age should have possessed more self-control. She wasn't a child and as such, she should've been no longer controlled by impulses of bloodlust. Part of her wanted to walk back in that room and lay down in her bed simply to prove that she had complete control of her faculties; but another more cynical part of her grounded firmly in rationale told her that she would only be putting herself through a kind of masochistic torture should she enter that room before she had truly gotten her urges under control. In lieu of this, Ayana decided that she would pass the next couple hours in meditation while sitting on the chaise lounge and bathing in the light from outside.

She sat there for what she estimated to be two hours clearing her mind of all troubling thoughts. When she finally emerged from her deep meditative state, Ayana felt overall much more in control of herself. The embarrassment that she had felt was still there, but the guilt was no longer something that she held onto. She had resolved herself that she would forget the incident and chalk the whole thing up to her lack of blood tablets before traveling.

By this time it was already late in the afternoon; still too early for vampires, but not enough time for Ayana to justify trying to sleep. She decided instead that she would spend her remaining time unpacking the rest of her belongings. There were still three medium-sized boxes filled with books that needed to be taken out and organized on the bookshelves, however upon closer inspection she found that she didn't necessarily like the way the maids had been arranging her books and thus decided that she would redo the whole system. That is how Kaname found her, sitting cross-legged on the floor with tall stacks of books piled all around her.

"Good morning,  _Otouto,_ " Ayana greeted him warmly.

Kaname looked around at the rather large mess she had created in her unpacking. A perplexed look passed over his face before he answered his sister. "Good morning," he said, then added, "You've been busy."

"Yeah," she agreed standing up and navigating the haphazardly stacked towers with practiced ease. She was searching for a specific pile, which she quickly found, picking them up and carrying them over to the shelves. It involved a tremendous amount of coordination and balance on her part to both avoid knocking into any of the other towers and prevent the books she was carrying from sliding off one another and crashing down onto the floor. She proceeded to stack the books in an orderly fashion along the second shelf; as she did this she cast an appraising glance at Kaname over her shoulder. "You look better," she said. "Did you sleep well?"

"Yes, I did. Thank you," he said still looking around him.

"That's great!" She paused in her work to smile at him in relief. "You had me worried," she said. "I don't want you to overwork yourself like that. I'm here now so if there's ever anything that I can do to help, I would prefer you to use me to my full capabilities." A quizzical looked passed over her face as she suddenly realized how her words could be misconstrued by her brother and she rushed to correct herself, "Wow, that sentence sounded way less suggestive in my head. What I meant to say was if there's ever anything you need a pair of extra hands for then you can use mine... _Oh, god—_ wait, that's so much worse than before."

Kaname let out a laugh as Ayana struggled for something to say. Color had risen to her cheeks giving her a delightful rosy-complexion which reminded him of when they were children and that same color would rush to her face whenever he had teased her. "Don't laugh," she told him. "It's not that funny."

"I'm sorry," he said, "it's just after all this time you still haven't cured your foot-in-mouth disease."

"Oh, shut up," she huffed turning her attention back to the books, a slight pout on her lips. "I didn't mean it like it sounded."

Kaname decided to show some empathy for his sister, crossing the room and taking some of the books from her hands. "I know what you meant and thank you. I appreciate your concern,  _Nee-chan_ ," The man leaned down and placed a brotherly kiss on the crown of her head, unknowingly causing the blush on Ayana's face to raise in color.

The woman stiffly nodded in response and bent down to pick up more books. "Don't thank me," she said. "You're my little brother, it's my job to be concerned for you."

Silence passed between them as they both busied themselves with the books. Neither really knowing what to say to the other, but both seeming rather aware of the elephant in the room. Kaname cast a curious look out of the corner of his eye. It was unusual for Ayana to be so quiet. The only time she was, was when she had been turning things over in her mind for long extended periods, often leading to her stressing herself out by overthinking. The man stopped in his actions and turned to her. "That's a look of serious contemplation," he observed, "is there something troubling you?"

"Not troubling per say," she said slowly. "I've just been thinking a lot this evening."

"About what?"

She kept her answer frustratingly vague. "Different things." Kaname gave her a look that prompted her to expound on what she had said; which she did after taking a moment to gather her thoughts. "It's just," she began, "I've been feeling— _I don't know how to describe it._ It's like melancholia, but it's not exactly the right word."

"What is then? Sad? Glum? Doleful? Morose?" Kaname suggested these words with a growing sense of concern as Ayana shook her head at each one.

"No, it's not a sad feeling," she said. "It's more like a maternal feeling, I guess. You know like empty nest syndrome. A lot of time has passed from when we were children—or when I was a child. Let's face it you were never truly a child back then. And, I knew that things would be different when I got here, that you and Yuki would both be...But it didn't hit me fully until I saw her. I almost didn't recognize her. She looks so…"

"Human?"

"Yeah," she said. "She's still pretty, even being human can't hide that. But I would've walked past her on the street without looking twice. It just makes me think of how much time I missed out on."

"I understand," he said. "I felt the same way when I saw you. You grew so much. You're no longer the child that I knew and before I realized it, you had blossomed into womanhood and a part of me feels as you said like I missed out on seeing you grow up. It's a strange feeling."

Ayana acknowledged that remark with a smile. "The strangest. At times it's almost like we're strangers with how little we know about each other's lives. I mean we wrote letters, but there's only so much that you can say in a letter and it's far less than you can say in person." She took the rest of the books from him and slid them onto the shelf, then turned to him. "Don't you feel it too? This insurmountable distance between us?"

"It's only natural, I suppose," Kaname said. "Like you said, we've been apart for so long, it makes sense we wouldn't be as close as we used to. For what it's worth, I am sorry for sending you over there by yourself."

"I forgive you," she said. "After all, one of us had to stay behind for Yuki. And it couldn't have been me, the Senate would have sunk their hooks into me and I would've become their puppet just like Uncle was. You were protecting me and Yuki like you promised Mother you would. I understand that now, so I'm not holding it against you." Ayana stepped closer to him and wrapped her arms around him, hugging him in a warm embrace. "I'm glad to be home."

Kaname lowered his head and pressed another soft kiss against his sister's hair. "I'm glad you're home too," he said. "I missed you, Ayana."

"And I you, Sebastos."


	3. Parts 8-9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ayana isn't as friendly as she appears.

**VIII.**

The schoolgirl pushed her way through the mass of bodies with growing frustration. The number of Day Class students seemed to have doubled within the fifteen minutes it took for Yuki to travel from the main campus to the Moon Dorm; the lot of them becoming more clumped together the closer she got to the main gate. She worked her way through the black uniforms, shoving an unfortunate few out of her path with a hurried "excuse me" and mumbled apologies. When she arrived at the front of the crowd, the girl spun on her heels and blew the metal whistle hanging from her neck. The shrill sound echoing throughout the assembly and momentarily gained their attention.

"It's past curfew for the Day Class," Yuki reminded them. "I must ask you all to return to the Sun Dorm or I will be forced to take disciplinary action."

There were several shouts of protest at the girl's declaration. The majority of the Day Class students present were, in fact, female and as such a lot of them were admirers of the male Night Class students, even going so far as to make official fan clubs like they were their own J-pop idols. It was them who shouted out against Yuki making them leave. Their comments ranged from mildly embittered to outright derogatory going so far as to accuse the prefect of abusing her position as the Headmaster, Kaien Cross's, adopted daughter in order to "keep the Night class all to herself."

It was such a common thing for them to say that by now Yuki barely batted an eye at it. Instead, she raised her voice over the crowd and said, "Any student that remains in the next thirty seconds will receive supplementary classes for the next two weeks!" She dug her hands into her pocket and pulled out a small notepad and pen before she began, starting with the girls standing closest to her, systematically calling out names and writing them down in her black book. This was an effective threat on Yuki's part and the vast majority cleared off within seconds, but not before the girl had written down the names of at least a dozen or so students. These students, seeing they're already being punished whether they stayed or not, decided to instead stick around to the watch the changeover and they were all quickly ushered to the side by the other prefect, Zero Kiryu.

"You're late again," Yuki said rather crossly as she glared at her foster brother. The silver-haired boy was overall unaffected by such a hostile look and gave her the weak excuse of having to attend supplementary classes as the reason for his tardiness; however, both knew it was a lie because Zero always managed to sneak out of those. Yuki suspected that he most likely had been sleeping in the stables again next to that demon of a horse, White Lily. But she chose not to push the subject as the girls behind her began gushing excitedly when the gates to the Moon Dorm opened and the Night Class students filed out onto the stone pathway.

No matter how many times she has seen it, Yuki always found herself a bit awestruck at the sight of the Night Class students. It was unusual in everyday life to see so many beauteous individuals all crowded together in one place. But it wasn't simply that they were beautiful that Yuki and dozens upon dozen of Day Class students were rendered reverential in their presence. The Night Class being vampires possessed a manner of absolute grace and perfection. Their appearances were polished to the point that even their hair looked like it was made out of some voluminous light-weight silk that danced in the summer breeze, and their faces ranging in skin tones from pale ivories to warm golds and dark, rich browns all had a placement of features that was extraordinarily pleasing to the eye, but it was the overall confidence in how they walked and talked and held themselves that really drew people in.

Although, she supposed that confidence was easy for them when they were essentially walking through a sea of their food. Even she was confident when faced with a piece of fried chicken. With that knowledge, it was easy for Yuki to turn her thoughts from admiring to cautious when they approached her. No matter what they looked like or held themselves as, whether as a ferocious lion or a docile lamb, vampires would always be the natural born predators of humans. It was the one point that she and Zero agreed wholeheartedly on, however, unlike her foster brother, Yuki believed that vampires like humans possessed the ability to choose whether to be good or bad and that many choose to be good rather than bad.

"Good Morning Ladies!"

Yuki was startled out of her inner reflections as the boisterous Hanabusa Aidou neared her. The blond grinned at the Day Class girls in what many would perceive as charming and good-natured, but there was a special kind of glint in his eye that told that his intentions weren't as honorable as his outward appearance reflected. She winced as the girls behind her screamed out a chorus of hellos in response, some even jokingly pointing out that the correct phrase was "Good evening".

"Ah, you're right," he laughed. "But it's morning somewhere." This response elicited a few excited giggles before he passed on winking at a pair of third-years toward the front of the crowd.

Aidou-sempai was fairly harmless as long as one kept their distance. Given the opportunity, Yuki knew that he wouldn't hesitate to sweet talk some naive fangirl into meeting him during the night where he would then drink their blood. Drinking blood was against the school rules, but the blond vampire was smart and would cover his tracks by erasing the poor girl's memories before either of the two prefects could catch up to him. He had only just been found out a couple of weeks prior to Summer Vacation and apparently the punishment that he had received from Kaname and Ichijo had been sufficient enough that when he returned, his flirtations had dwindled to a few suggestive looks here and there.

As he passed by Yuki, his expression turned a tad more hostile. "Good morning, Yuki-chan," he smiled and the schoolgirl shifted uncomfortably under his icy eyes. Clearly, he still blamed her for him getting caught as it had been her to discover him and report him to the Headmaster and consequently, Kaname.

"H-Hello Aidou-sempai," she said. "Good luck with your studies." She pretended to ignore the dark look that passed over his face before his sunny disposition returned and he thanked her, moving on to the next girl. She then turned her attention back to the other Night Class students, searching for one in particular.

Kaname was walking in the back of the procession today; his attention focused on the other students in front of him. He sensed her eyes on him and turned his attention to her, a warm smile blooming on his face. Yuki was struck by such a look and for a moment she looked away as warmth flooded to her face. She chanced a look upwards to see that Kaname's eyes had been drawn away from her by Takuma Ichijou as he pointed to something on the papers he was carrying. Ayana, strangely, was nowhere near her little brother like Yuki had first expected her to be. Instead on the other side of Kaname, followed Seiren Kobayashi, the everpresent and often silent shadow of the dorm-president. Yuki's eyes scanned a little further down the line of white uniforms passing over Akatsuki Kain, Ruka Souen, Rima Toya, and Shiki Senri.

As the four of them passed, the girls behind Yuki started to become rowdier as one them started to push her way to the front. "Senri-sempai, Senri-sempai," she called out waving her hand wildly in the air to catch the older boy's attention.

Shiki Senri was a professional model, and as to be expected he had a lot of fans both on and off campus. However, he always came off a bit too unsociable, often projecting an air of aloofness about his demeanor that made him seem lazy, sometimes rude. He didn't stop walking, but his pale blue eyes did flicker briefly over to the second-year Day Class girl and the white letter she was flapping around in her hand. Rima Toya, who was his fellow model and childhood friend, observed this as well and said, "Looks like you have another love letter. Lucky you."

Shiki sighed and looked greatly displeased by her comment. "Troublesome," he said.

By now, the girl seeing that Shiki wasn't stopping, had shoved herself rather violently through the last couple of girls, including Yuki, and darted passed Zero to the disinterested model. As a result, Yuki found herself falling forward towards the rough stone pathway. But before even her knees could hit the ground, she was caught and steadied by a pair of small tanned hands.

"Whoa! Easy there." A familiar voice said, and Yuki looked up to see the smiling face of Ayana Kuran. The last rays of the evening sun reflected off the woman's raven hair and for a moment she felt a flash of familiarity at the sight. An image of a dark silhouette with sunlight reflecting similar dark blues flashed in her mind's eye.

" _Are you alright, baby girl?"_

"Huh?" She mumbled dazedly, not fully catching what the woman had said.

"Are you alright? Can you stand?" Ayana adjusted her hold so that the smaller girl wasn't more or less leaning on her and helped her stand to her feet. Her dark brows furrowed together with concern while Yuki continued to stare blankly at her face. "Yuki-chan? Are you okay?" She asked more firmly.

That seemed to snap the girl out of her trance and she quickly realized the other Night Class students had stopped in order to watch them both. Yuki self-consciously shoved the other woman away. "I'm fine," she said.

"That's a relief," the vampire's eyes scanned the girl's person for any injuries. Pleased that she found none, her expression returned to its usual warm-hearted smile. "It's lucky I caught you," she said.

"Y-Yes—uh, thank you very much!" She bowed her head slightly forward causing Ayana's smile to widen.

The pureblood reached forward and plucked a stray piece of lent from the schoolgirl's uniform. "Happy to help. I'm just glad that you're not hurt," she said, then turning to the other girls behind her she inquired about their wellbeing as well. The lot of them blushed at the attentive concerned being shown to them by the upperclassman whilst they hurriedly assured her that they too were unhurt. "So glad. Try to be more careful from now on, alright? I'd feel horrible if any of you ended up in the infirmary."

"O-Of course, Sempai!" The girls all stuttered and bowed their heads.

Suddenly, a harsh hand wrapped around the pureblood's upper forearm and she was spun around to face an angry pair of lilac-colored eyes. Zero Kiryu glared down at her with a look of such loathing that a normal person would've been unsettled, even frightened in the face of it. Ayana, to her credit, only raised her brows in question as she regarded him with a curious-level of seriousness; ignoring the downright hostile looks being directed at the boy from both the Night and Day Class students.

* * *

**IX.**

Ayana was intensely aware of the perils of the situation she was in. On the one hand, her position as a pureblood entitled—no, enforced—a certain reactionary response from her that said that she had a responsibility to punish the boy prefect's impertinence. His actions of grabbing her arm would not be easily swept under the rug, sort of speak, and doing so for her would leave her open to a level of scrutiny that could very well be detrimental to her reputation. On the other hand, Ayana was well aware of who Zero Kiryu was and the role that he would need to play in the near future. It was a role not many would step into without first a strong basis of trust in the one leading them. By default, she knew that gaining Zero's trust was going to be an uphill battle with obstacle upon obstacle stacked in her way. But trust currently was not the issue, respect was.

_Stupid, stupid boy._  She thought as her eyes flickered over to Kaname whose eyes had flashed a vivid crimson. Continuing on like this was going to get him killed. Not that it would be a great loss to her, she supposed, she could always find another to take his place. But Yuki cared for this impetuous hunter; he was her friend, her brother, and protector when she and Kaname had not been able to stand by the girl's side. She felt some gratitude for that, but again not so much that she wanted to excuse this behavior. It was inexcusable, even if she wasn't a pureblood, she still had personal boundaries that she needed to keep in place. If she had been alone, it would've been a simple matter of asserting her authority, but because there was an audience of humans and vampires, she would have to do this in a more subtle manner.

Placing her hand lightly on top of his own, Ayana willed herself to take a deep steady breath through her nose. "I don't believe we met," she said somewhat good-naturedly. "I'm Kuran, Ayana. But you can just call me Ayana. You're Kiryu-kun, right?" Her thumb smoothed small circles over the back of the boy's hand, deliberately and calmly, and an unsettled look passed over Zero's face as he felt his grip loosening on her arm—unwittingly, unconsciously being overwhelmed by a serene feeling of placid maneuverability. "I understand you were only trying to get my attention, but where I come from grabbing someone like that is considered to be a threat on their safety. Now I know you weren't trying to threaten me, right?"

"O-Of course he wasn't, Ayana-sempai!" Yuki answered for her foster brother when he looked unable to himself. There was a thickening tension in the air, heavy like the barometric pressure dropped within a matter of seconds as dark ominous clouds moved in from the east. Ayana nodded in agreement with Yuki, smiling. That smile wasn't as friendly as it had been before. There was a certain strain put on the corners of her mouth that weren't usually present in the pureblood's face; and her eyes, that were usually a rich burgundy with hints of plum, had darkened considerably so that her pupils were almost indistinguishable from the dark, muted red of her irises.

"That's right. This is simply a misunderstanding," she said, then with a slight tilt of her head, she inquired if there was something in particular that Zero had wanted to talk to her about. But the hunter was finding it exceedingly difficult to make even a sound, much less utter a word of his regular boorish preconceptions about the Night Class or vampires in general. It was as if his tongue had become paralyzed in his mouth and the only thing he managed to do was shake his head. He realized then exactly what she was doing to him. Unbeknownst to everyone else, Ayana was enforcing her will and desires upon the silver-haired hunter through her mere touch. She didn't want him to speak, so he couldn't speak. She didn't want his anger, so he felt stupidly numb. She wanted him to apologize, so—

_No!_  Zero clamped his jaw shut as a wave of remorse washed over him. It wasn't him feeling that. He wasn't sorry. He was not sorry and he would not, could not apologize. Another wave hit him, this time engulfing him completely, filling his lungs to the point that he couldn't breathe. "Well, if that's the case," Ayana's voice sounded muted to his ears, echoing like she was talking to him through a telephone, "do you mind removing your hand or am I taking it with me?" She laughed then, her face blooming into a beautiful grin as if she had just cracked a funny joke. Only Zero knew that she wasn't joking. The underlying message was clear: either remove your hand from me, or I will remove your hand from you.

The boy ripped his hand away from her, then, a quiet and breathless "Sorry" passing from his lips. It was just loud enough that only Yuki, Ayana, and Zero had heard it. The schoolgirl looked up at her foster brother in shock at the uncharacteristic apology, while Ayana nodded satisfactorily. "I forgive you." Then she turned her eyes back to the other Night Class students, who looked overall more confused than angry at this point, except for Kaname who was for the most part just as ticked off as before. Her eyes met his briefly and a silent message seemed to pass between them before he nodded in understanding. "Well, if there's nothing else...I got to get to class. Kiryu-kun it was nice meeting you. And you girls," she turned her head to the Day Class students who blinked out of their stupefied state, "should get back to the Sun Dorms. It looks like it's going to rain."

Then with one last smile and wave, Ayana continued down the pathway toward the rest of the Night Class students. None of them really knew what to think of the whole incident. There were some that sensed something had happened between the pureblood and the prefect. Others, though, many others only saw the interaction at its face value and felt that as a pureblood and head of the Kuran family, Ayana hadn't been near as firm as she should've been. One such comment was made by Hanabusa while the lot of them were working in one of the science labs that she was "too forgiving."

"Interesting thought," she said looking up from the lens of her microscope. "Aidou-kun, do you believe that no one should be exempt from the law? That neither money or status or birth should affect that person's punishment in any way and that all people should be sentenced equally according to the crimes they commit?"

"Of course. That's how the judicial system should work," he said.

"So tell me? Would it be just to administer punishment to one party, while pardoning another for the same crime?" She asked.

To that, the blond didn't have any response. For he realized at that moment that for him to condemn Zero, he would also be condemning himself and Ruka; and as illogical as Ayana's actions had seemed, she was really only acting in a manner that she perceived as the fairest course. Just because it was the fairest course, however, didn't mean that he or anyone else didn't hold some lingering resentment in their hearts towards the silver-haired prefect. In many cases, the dislike for the prefect increased tenfold after that incident.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you want to get faster updates, then follow The Ghost of You on ff.net. There I update in parts (bi-weekly).


	4. Parts 10-12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things are a bit tense with Kaname and Ayana. They don't always agree with each other's decisions.

**X.**

The Night Class was in itself misleading. At first glance, the name would suggest that it was a group of students that took classes at night. In fact, many of the Day Class students thought the Night Class to be an elite group of university students that used the campus as overflow from one of the prominent universities in the area. (There was much speculation on which university it was; and many suspected that it had to be either one of the Imperial Universities or one of the foreign Ivy League Colleges from abroad, like Harvard or Yale since there was a prolific number of foreigners and half-Japanese enrolled there.) But nothing could be concluded upon or ruled out with any level of certainty. The way the two groups were kept separate from one another was also cause for suspicion; for many felt that something must not be wholly right with the situation if the Headmaster and the prefects went so far out of their way to enforce a curfew. But again nothing could be found out about whether or not there was something going on that shouldn't have been and any who tried searching out the truth were stopped, often before they could even begin. At its core, the Night Class was essentially nothing more than a research group. A collection of vampires gathered from fields of science, mathematics, medicine, and technology for the sole purpose of finding solutions to the many problems preventing the peaceful co-existence of Vampiric Society with Human Society. There were in total less than fifty vampires that were a part of this highly selective group; and they were split up into smaller, more efficient teams that specialized in either technology-related, medicine-related, or a combination of the two.

Ayana had been temporarily placed with the group that was working on the blood tablets until she could gather the necessary materials and compile a list of fellow peers that she wanted to add to her own research group. So far she had Ruka and Hanabusa on the list, along with a select few she was taking with her from her previous team that would arrive later that week along with the rest of the materials. They had worked steadily observing and documenting several different blood samples in which the tablets were still proving to be ineffective until about two in the morning, which was when Night Class adjourned for lunch in the cafeteria. During this time, it was customary for the groups to split off from each other, sitting at the various tables to eat or taking a brief walk outside to clear their thoughts. Kaname had seen it fit to do the latter, while Ayana stayed behind to discuss the possible theories for the blood tablets sporadic ineffectiveness with Hanabusa and Takuma.

The pureblood traversed the deserted corridors and dark stairways until he found himself at one of the many entrances to the roof. His thoughts had been somewhat preoccupied the whole evening. Since that incident with Zero and Ayana's subsequent and arguably questionable punishment of the said prefect. He wasn't so oblivious as to think that she had let the incident pass by without censure. Despite what it may have looked like, the interaction between Ayana and Zero had been anything but friendly and he knew that she had done something to the prefect because the way Zero looked at her afterward with a glimmer of fear in those hostile eyes of his.

If he was right in his assumption, Kaname had a pretty good idea of just what exactly she had done enforcing her will on him. But it was just so against her character, or more, so against the character of the child that he knew that he had some trouble coming to terms with it. Past Ayana would never have done something so inhumane, so vampiric in nature. The act went against everything that Haruka and Juri had taught her, all of the values of being a kind and pacifistic pureblood, and he had to come to the realization that the sister he thought he knew had somehow changed over the years, hardened in a way he hadn't anticipated.

It could make things rather difficult moving forward. Or maybe, this newfound ruthlessness could play in his favor? There was really no telling which way Ayana would lean; whether she would be an ally or another enemy he would have to be wary of. There was no doubt that she would protect Yuki from their Uncle, and by extension the Senate, but her motives were unclear beyond that. He didn't know how far she was willing to go or what she was willing to do.

That level of unpredictability made her dangerous.

He stepped out into the cool night air, inhaling deeply the scent of sweet basil and blackberries. It was a familiar smell, something that he had been unconsciously drawn to in his state of deep contemplation. He didn't even realize it until he heard a startled gasp from Yuki.

"K-Kaname-sempai."

She had hurriedly jumped off the stone railing and ducked her head somewhat shyly at him. The young girl's expression was one of surprise and embarrassment at being caught off guard. Kaname regarded her with a look of tenderness as he stepped out of the shadows and into the soft moonlight. "I'm sorry," he said, "I didn't mean to startle you."

"No, it's okay. It's nothing I won't recover from." She smiled and leaned against the railing, placing her hands on the rough stone for support. Yuki studied him with curious eyes, then asked. "Is everything alright? I-I mean, you look like there's something on your mind."

Unknowingly, Kaname's face had betrayed some of his inner worries to her; realizing this, he was quick to reassure her. "Everything's fine," he said.

Yuki raised her brow at him incredulously, then shrugged turning to look out over the surrounding forest. "If you say so…" She purposely made herself look busy scanning the area as Kaname moved to stand beside her. "It's been quiet tonight. No one's been out since the rain earlier," she remarked for lack of anything better to say.

"That's good."

Yuki nodded. "It makes my job easier," she said.

"Thank you for all your hard work, Yuki." Kaname smiled, touching her arm lightly to regain her attention. Her head swiveled around as a warm flush spread across her face. They stared at each other a moment, then she shifted awkwardly away from him.

"I'm just happy to help," she said.

The atmosphere around them was a bit stifled. Partly because Yuki didn't know what to say or how to act around a man who she possessed romantic feelings towards, and partly because Kaname had so many things he wanted to say, but knew that the majority of them would've been confusing, embarrassing, or plainly distasteful in the light of their present relationship. It was difficult for him sometimes to be around Yuki. A large part of him craved her presence, her scent, like a drug addict searching out their next hit. But he always found himself overcome with such melancholia whenever he looked at her and the memories, memories upon memories of years and centuries past, would overwhelm him. Humans were such fragile things. Their lives were nothing more than a brief spark, flickering out as soon as they began. Seeing Yuki like this, seeing her human, had an odd effect on him. It always had. But seeing how quickly she' matured over the years, how much she's grown into a woman—it had his thoughts traveling back to his conversation with Ayana earlier that evening.

"Sempai?" Yuki's voice was soft, hesitant. She positioned herself so she was turned slightly towards the vampire. Kaname's eyes settled on her with interest as the girl began to twist her armband self-consciously around her forearm. "About your sister...Umm, how come you've never told me about her? I've known you for as long as I can remember and you've never once mentioned her to me."

"I didn't realize you were interested," he said.

"Of course, I am!" Her voice carried rather loudly and she checked herself, "I mean, I'm interested in all kinds of things about you."

"Is that so?"

"Yes. It's unfair that you know so much about me, but you keep so much about yourself secret. I just-just wish you'd trust me more."

Kaname placed his hands on Yuki's shoulders and turned the schoolgirl towards him. "Yuki," he said gravely, "you are one of the few people in this world I do trust. I'm sorry if I've ever made you feel to the contrary."

"I understand, I guess," she said. "You've always been rather reserved. But I get it. There are some things that are difficult to talk about. But I just realized that I really don't know you all that well, Sempai, and it made me feel selfish."

"Selfish?" He repeated the word incredulously, his lips twitching up humorously at the notion. "I don't believe you could be even if you tried. The very fact that you said that proves it. But fine, what is it that makes you feel selfish?" He asked.

"Well, you know...I was thinking today that you know all these things about me. But I've never once bothered to ask anything about you. I didn't know you had a sister. I don't think I even know your favorite color. That's selfish, isn't it?"

"Green."

Yuki was confused. "What?"

"That's my favorite color," he told her. "And to answer your question, no. I don't think it's selfish. There is a myriad of reasons why you never knew about either of those and none of them have anything to do with selfishness. If anything it can all be attributed to relevance. The information was never relevant for you to know, so I never bothered to tell you and you never bothered to ask."

"So what you're saying is that now the information has become relevant, that's why I'm learning of it? I guess that makes a lot of sense," she said. "So tell me, if I had bothered to ask you before you would've told me about Ayana-sempai?"

"Yes."

"This sounds a lot like a conversation I had with her," she mused. "She said, 'Sometimes people assume you know things that you don't actually know…' So I guess in this case, you more or less assumed that I didn't care to know anything about your family because I never asked. But now that I asked, you'd be willing to tell me more about yourself."

"It depends on the question," he said. "There are some things that it would be unsafe for you to know."

She pondered that in her mind for a moment, then opened her mouth to say something more. But before she could get the words out, they were interrupted, intruded upon, by Zero. The silver-haired prefect stopped at the entrance to the roof, leaning against the door. A dark look passed over his pale features as he looked between the two of them.

"The break is over, Kuran." His words lacked its usual bite when addressing the pureblood, instead, he sounded weary.

Kaname regarded him coolly, whilst Yuki hurried to distance herself from him, saying something along the lines of needing to get back to work. His attention flickered only briefly to her as she quickly excused herself, promising to continue their conversation at a later time. "I look forward to it," he said, then Yuki ducked her head and went forward to pull Zero away from the doorway. Before she could, the pureblood called out to him. "Kiryu-kun, there's something I want to discuss with you before you leave."

The two prefects halted, Yuki glancing worriedly between them. She was disinclined to leave them both alone. After the incident between Ayana and Zero, she felt that there would be an altercation between the two of them and if possible she was going to prevent it. Kaname must've sensed this train of thought for he calmly assured her that all he planned to do was talk. She still seemed unsure of the situation, however one last acquiescing look from Zero was enough to convince her to reluctantly make her way through the door.

"Don't be too long," she said. "And don't fight."

* * *

**XI.**

"What did you want to talk to me about?"

Zero stood stiffly by the exit, his back to the door. He was tense; tenser than he normally would've been in this situation. He didn't like Kaname. He never did. But right now he found himself becoming irritated by how casually the pureblood was leaning against the railing of the roof. He knew it was deceiving, that while appearing to be relaxed, Kaname was anything but. His senses told him to be on alert and unconsciously his hand wrapped around his side close to where his anti-vampire gun was holstered.

"I see you got some of your fight back. After what my sister did, I wasn't sure if you'd still have so much moxie as to even think about raising your weapon against me." Kaname's voice was overall calm, but there was a steely undertone to his words. He regarded the prefect with thinly veiled contempt as the boy visibly flinched at the mention of Ayana.

"This is about earlier," Zero surmised. "Is that it? Since I dared to lay my hands on your sister, now you're going to beat me up."

"Yuki told us not to fight," he reminded him.

"Why do you always do what she says?"

Kaname raised his brows at that the challenging tone laced through that question. "I suppose it's for the same reason that you do," he said.

To that, Zero didn't have any response, so he resorted to silently stewing for a moment. Sometimes it amazed him how someone like Yuki, someone so kind and good-natured, could favor a total asshole like Kaname. The guy was rotten to the core and Zero didn't just think that because he was a vampire (Although, it did have a large part to do with it.) but because the guy himself was always so manipulative. He looked at the world like everyone was a chess piece, a piece to be manipulated and moved according to his whims. He didn't want someone like that around Yuki. She deserved better. After a moment of biting back his words, Zero returned to the subject at hand.

"So if you're not going to fight me," he started, "then why are we here? What is this? An intimidation tactic?"

Kaname didn't answer him directly. Is wasn't in his nature to reveal his intentions so plainly. Often times, the pureblood had an annoying habit of speaking in long, convoluted, allegories that left the other party scrambling, whilst trying to figure out what exactly he was thinking. "You know the life of a vampire hunter is relatively short-lived. Rarely do you find anyone that's lived past their prime. Why do you think that is?"

"Easy, vampires," he said.

"I suppose you could sum it up so blasely. But then again, maybe it's not so simple. The vampire hunters I've met, a lot of them, get cocky. After a while the hunting becomes like any other job; and like any other job they fall into a routine, get comfortable, and then they start slipping. It starts out small. Maybe one day they forget to turn in their reports; then they start neglecting their workouts, thinking they can skip just one day, and before they even realize it they're no longer training, no longer being cautious; and when they finally go out on a job, they make a mistake and they die."

"Is there a point here?" Zero scowled, clenching his fist at his side.

The pureblood pushed himself away from the railing and stalked forward. He moved with a certain degree of grace and fluidity of movement that gave him the air of being a prowling lion. He stopped within arms reach of the prefect, towering over him, then said, "The point, Kiryu-kun, is that in this world, one small mistake is enough to get you killed."

"Is that a threat?" The boy asked.

Kaname's lips twitched humorously; his cool gaze bearing down on the prefect. "It's a warning," he said. "I know there's a part of you that doesn't care whether you live or die. But if you're going to put your life on the line, it should be for a reason and not for some asinine power trip. For Yuki's sake, if not your own, think before you act. You're not irreplaceable. If you keep this up, then I'll let you hang."

"Well, that's not very pacifistic," Zero remarked.

The pureblood chuckled. "No," he agreed. "But it is pragmatic. There's no pointing in helping someone with a deathwish. It only wastes time."

A look of veritable perplexity passed over the boy's features. His was naturally incredulous at the very notion that Kaname wanted to help him. The pureblood was not altruistic by any means; if anything, Zero suspected that they only reason he would help him was if there was something for him to gain by doing so. "You want to help me?" He asked. "Why? What is your game, Kuran?"

"My game?" Kaname repeated those words slowly, deliberately to get a rise out of the younger boy. "It's chess. I thought you knew that."

Zero ground his teeth together and clenched his fists to prevent himself from throwing a punch at that smug smirk of his.  _Son of a bitch_ , he swore. Suddenly, the wind shifted bringing with it a distinctive aroma that had the prefect stiffening on instinct. He became aware at that moment of a third presence on the rooftop, the scent of vampire smelling both sickeningly sweet and incredibly bitter to his nose. Because one never keeps their back to a potential threat, Zero immediately turned around to the side to see who now stood in the doorway to the roof, his eyes narrowing.

They both recognized her scent before she even stepped out of the shadows, or more even uttered a word. But the reactions of the two males were vastly different. Zero stood stiffly, coiled like a tightly wound spring and waiting for the smallest provocation; whilst Kaname merely raised his gaze appraisingly, looking neither pleased nor displeased at the interruption.

"There you are," Ayana said. She stepped out of the doorway and into the soft moonlight, illuminating her features that were a mask of amiable cordiality. She looked between them, taking particular note of the stiff body language of the boy prefect and the somewhat intimidating air surround her brother, before pausing mid-stride. "I'm sorry," she began. "Am I interrupting something? Class has resumed and the others were wondering where you got off to, I volunteered to go check—But if you're both in the middle of something, I'll leave and let you finish."

"No, that won't be necessary," Kaname told her. "I'm done here." He said it with a blatant disregard for whether or not Zero was finished with the conversation. (He wasn't.) But the prefect's feelings hardly mattered in this instance and he knew that it wasn't his place, or the best idea, to voice his discontent when there were two purebloods present and no witnesses. He was so much of a halfwit as to not think about the fact that he was currently both outnumbered and outgunned, the obvious disadvantage making him feel more unsettled than anything else. He didn't say a single word as Kaname breezed past him, nor when the pureblood stopped at the doorway throwing one last subtle barb over his shoulder, nor when Ayana paused bestowing upon him an almost pitying look, that had both anger and confusion churning in his stomach, before following after her brother with silent footsteps.

The stiffness leached out of Zero's body as soon as they had left; almost collapsing from the flood of relief of not being around vampires and the anger that Kaname and Ayana had both elicited in him, he leaned against the wall of the building. "Why the hell would you look at me like that?" He asked, his words being carried away by the wind an answer not forthcoming.

* * *

**XII.**

Ayana and Kaname walked down the long corridor to the west wing science labs. Neither was saying anything, but there was a palpable tension between them in spite of this. Between the piercing looks from Ayana and the quick, somewhat hurried strides of Kaname, it sufficed to say that there was a silent argument brewing between the two.

"Was that really necessary?" Ayana asked after a moment. Her eyes didn't drift from the profile of her brother's face; staying fixed on the focal point of his drawn pensive brow.

"Yes."

The short, curt answer irked her and she found herself needing a moment to recollect herself before continuing. It was moments like this where Kaname proved particularly pigheaded that Ayana found herself detesting the role of responsible older sister. Despite his actual age, sometimes the ancestor really acted like a petulant little boy. "Kaname," she began warningly, "don't use that tone with me. I'm not the one you're mad at."

"So you're a mind reader now," he said, pausing long enough to glare at her.

Ayana was taken aback the hostility in his words. She was beyond confused, but she had been on the other side of Kaname's anger enough not to be intimidated by it. In fact, she was feeling a bit miffed. "Am I mistaken? Are you mad at me? Why? What have I done?" She asked, trying to keep a hold of her mounting aggravation.

Kaname scoffed. It was such a small, insignificant sound; nothing more than a breath of air escaping out of the man's nose, yet something in it set her off. She was done playing the peacemaker, grabbing his arm she spun him around, pushing him to a wall and pinning him there. She moved with too much force, anger fuelling her movements, and the plaster behind Kaname's shoulders cracked audibly in the silence. She frowned at that and at him, blaming him for the damage and her lack of self-control. It seemed to be that he was the only person who managed to push her buttons just right, a fact of which vexed her tremendously.

"What the hell is your problem?" She growled. "Why are you being such an insufferable cad?"

"Cad? You're making this a feminist thing," he said.

"No. You are," she argued. "And you're trying to change the subject!" Her hands pressed firmly to the wall and she took a step closer, tilting her chin upwards, in order to meet his dark brooding eyes. In the darkness, the shadows obscured Kaname's face, casting half of his profile in shadow and making the dark burgundy of his irises appear pitch black. Ayana was undeterred by the flash of red or the slight indentation of fangs on his lower lip and she pressed even closer still, boxing him in. It was a dangerous thing to do, boxing in a vampire, whether they were a pureblood or not; vampires were predatory creatures, and much like a tiger or a lion, when they were cornered their first instinct was to fight back. "I'm not letting you go until we have this out," she said.

Kaname exhaled slowly, purposely out his nose. His hands moved to wrap, tightly around Ayana's wrists, securing her, cementing her in her place. She couldn't move away now even if she had wanted to. For the briefest moment, her face betrayed her shock and trepidation at such a move, before her expression hardened. "You're an idiot," he said.

"Excuse me. What was that?"

"You heard me. You're. An. Idiot." Kaname purposely drew out the words, leaning forward so that his forehead was pressed against her own. Ayana's face flushed red, whether it was the insult or the proximity to him, was yet to be determined; but it was abundantly clear that his words had struck a chord with her. "That situation needed to be dealt with—properly," he said.

"I had it handled."

He pulled back, raising his brow incredulously. "Did you? From where I was standing it didn't look that way."

"There's more to things than meet the eye. You taught me that, remember?"

"Yes. But I also taught you that perception is important. Your leniency towards a hunter made you seem weak. Letting yourself appear weak, leaves you open to attack. Or have you forgotten that along with your morals?"

"So that's what this is about?" She clenched her fist, her long nails, leaving jagged marks in the soft eggshell-colored paint. "Oh, come off your high-horse! So I used mind control. So what? It was necessary. And you're seriously going to stand there and lecture me about it, like your my father, as if you haven't done worse things? As if you haven't ripped crying babes from their mother's arms, laid siege to entire cities, or controlled an army of level-Es that mindlessly slaughtered, pillaged, and raped? You,  _The Grim Reaper in Red,_  are lecturing me on morals? You talk about appearing weak, but what does that make you? Antagonizing a baby hunter—Something like that shouldn't be worth your time. Have you become so blinded by your jealousy that you no longer see the big picture?"

"I am not jealous," he said.

Ayana's lips twitched upwards. "Come on, you can't be that bad of a liar. Say it again with feeling. Make me believe it," she said. Kaname's jaw clenched and he gave her a look of such loathing, such utter disdain, that any lesser person would've been rendered pliant and mute. But she only took it as a sign of victory, however grudgingly it was admitted, whether spoken or unspoken. Deciding to lead the conversation down a different path, she began again, "Look, I don't want to fight with you. I don't enjoy it and it's detrimental to both of us. We need to be united in this plan or the whole thing will fall to pieces. Can we at least agree on that?"

"Fine," Kaname agreed, although very averse to doing so.

"There are some things we need to discuss. Somethings that I couldn't put in my letters," she told him. "But we can't do it here. There's too many watchful eyes, too many curious ears."

That seemed for the moment to placate things between them. Kaname gradually released his strangled grip on Ayana's wrists and cast a quick glance down the darkened corridor. They were still so far away from the classrooms that their prior scuffle would've been out of hearing range of the rest of the Night Class; however, the more they tarried, the more likely it was for the others to become curious and come looking for them. "What are you proposing?" He asked.

"Brunch," she said. "Off-campus at a place that no one knows who we are and a time that most of our kind should be sleeping."

"We put a pin in this now and we'll discuss things then?"

"We can discuss whatever you want to. I'm sure there are things you have to tell me as well, right?"

"Then it's deal," he said.

Ayana pushed herself away from him, brushing some small bits of plaster off his uniform jacket. "It's a date."

* * *

**FAN ART TIME!**

<-Ayana Kuran

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Periodically, I might post some fanart with this fic. Sometimes it's easier for me to describe characters after I've drawn them. Tell me if you guys want to see more of these as more OCs come into the story.


	5. Parts 13-15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When working together, trust and communication are key.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone who has left kudos and comments and subscribed and bookmarked this fic. You’re support is greatly appreciated.

**XIII.**

During the night, Ayana found herself spending an hour in the library with _that person_ per her parents' request. For the first several weeks, she merely sat for that hour, reading or coloring or doing something else to keep both her mind and her hands busy as an excuse not to engage in conversation with him. But there were only so many _origami*_ cranes one can fold before they inevitably run out of paper.

"I'm bored." It was a statement of fact; spoken out of desperation. The small girl shoved aside the colorful paper figurines and glanced over expectantly at the small boy sitting comfortably in the armchair across from her. He didn't even react, much less spare her a glance over the copy of _Art of War_ ** in his hands and for some reason it annoyed her.

_Who did he think he was?_ She thought. First coming into her home uninvited and then ignoring her when she spoke—It was insulting. Leaning forward, she snatched one of the paper cranes off the coffee table in front of her, crumpling it, and lobbing it across the distance between them. It fell short, dropping uselessly to the ground by one the ornately carved chair legs. Her cheeks puffed out in frustration and she reached for another crane. This time she carefully unfolded it and rolled it up into a small tight ball to minimize wind resistance. It sailed gracefully through the air, hitting its intended target, bouncing off the mop of dark chocolate locks and over the back of the chair.

Kaname glanced at her over the pages, his expression semi-curious. "What are you doing?" He asked.

"I'm bored," she told him.

The boy hummed disinterested and returned to his book. Ayana saw this, her expression souring even more. "Hey," she slammed her small hand down on the wooden surface, disrupting more of the paper cranes, "don't ignore me!"

A long sigh passed from the boy's lips as he regarded her much like her parents did when she was being incorrigible. She wasn't fond of that look; but especially from him, she thought it was rather degrading. "I'm not," he said.

"You were."

"I wasn't," he contradicted. "I heard you the first time and I've taken note of it."

Ayana gave him an expectant look. "And?"

"And what?"

"What are you going to do about it?" She asked.

"Nothing."

"Nothing?" She repeated, not fully grasping the word nor Kaname's blatant disregard towards her.

"Boredom is a part of immortality," he told her, "you should get used to it." The boy blinked slowly down at her from his chair. She had never seen such a bland expression on her baby brother's face. Kaname, the real Kaname, was always full of life, animated in both expression and his gestures. It struck her again that _this person_ didn't belong here. Not in her life, nor in her brother's body—He was an imposter.

She looked away from him and those old soulful eyes of his, eyes that no child should have, and shivered. A cold draft was beginning to seep in from outside as the fire in the fireplace, gradually burned down to a red-hot ember. She wrapped her sweater tighter around herself before she stood up to go throw another log on the fire. After prodding the flames back into a blaze, Ayana turned to him with forlorn eyes. "Is that what happened to you? Did you get bored of living?"

Kaname paused mid-page and shifted towards her. "No." The answer was short, resolute leaving no room for misunderstanding. He didn't expound on it and that "no" echoed in her mind as the silence stretched between them.

After a moment, Ayana turned from the hearth, traversed the length of the room, and disappeared around a row of bookshelves. Kaname watched her leave with interest, wondering what exactly was she was doing when he heard some shuffling, then she returned moments later with boxes of board games: Candyland, Battleship, Chinese checkers, Monopoly, and Chess. She cleared away a space on the coffee table and sat down on the plush Persian rug.

"Let's play a game." Kaname stared at her, then at the games she had collected, but made no move to join her. "Come on," she urged, "put down that old smelly book and do something else." She attempted to mold her expression into one of perceived friendliness with little success; lacking both the gregariousness and warmth necessary to be convincing. After a beat of silence and a rather blank look from Kaname, she said, "Please, just one game. It's no fun to play by yourself."

Grudgingly with the reluctance of an adult humoring a toddler, Kaname closed his book and set it aside. "Which game?" He asked after taking a seat across from her at the table.

"You pick."

Looking over the games again, Kaname picked out the wooden chess set from the pile. It was the only game he vaguely recognized as the other were too new for him to have learned about before his long hibernation. "Do you know how to play this?" He asked her.

Ayana shrugged her tiny shoulders. "Kind of," she said. "I'm not very good at it."

"Just as long as you know the rules," he said. He proceeded to set up the board and the pieces positioning them so that Ayana had the light wooden ones sitting before her, whilst he had the dark. Once all the pieces were on the board, he gestured for her to make the first move. Which she did moving one of her pawns from space D2 to D3.

Kaname examined the board and moved one of his knights from space G8 to F6. He regarded her somewhat curiously over the board. "What made you decided to do this?" He asked.

"Do what?" She wondered picking up her knight from B1 to D2. "Move my pawn?"

He shook his head. "No, I mean this," he gestured to the stack of board games. "Why did you decide to do this? It's out of character for you." He slid his dark pawn forward two spaces from E7 to E5.

"You don't know my character," she said moving another pawn from C2 to C4. Kaname moved his knight to C6 and fixed her with a blank look.

"Then what is your character?" He asked.

Ayana slid her pawn forward from G2 to G3. Her dark brows drew together at the question, looking for a moment unsure of how to answer. "I-I don't know...But you can't make assumptions off of people after such a short period of time. _Oka-san***_ said that you can't judge a book by it's cover," she said.

"And she would be right," he agreed; moving another pawn from D7 to D5. "However, first impressions can tell you a lot about a person."

"Like what?" She studied the board for a moment, her hand hovering over her pawn set to capture one of Kaname's, but she decided better of it and nudged her pawn on A2 forward.

Kaname moved one of his bishops from F8 to C5. "For example, your first move was rather timid. From that you could deduce that you are someone who is a bit more cautious, insecure even," he observed. "The Mieses Opening isn't the most popular move because it doesn't stake out such a large share of the center like a Closed Game Opening."

" _Otou-san****_ said its better to defend your position than to attack outright," she said as she placed her knight from D2 to B3.

"That can be true sometimes," he said. "However the pitfall of defending your position is that it gives your enemy time to surround you. It's much better to be progressive than reactionary. " As he said this he captured one of Ayana's pawns with his bishop.

Ayana blinked and looked at the space where her pawn had been captured. Not realizing she had left it open to attack. "You sound like you're speaking from experience," she said. She picked up her king and captured Kaname's bishop.

"I am. When you're on the defensive, you don't have control of what's happening. It's only when you flip the tables when you control the choices being made, that you're in the lead. As Sun Tzu said: 'The clever combatant imposes his will on the enemy, but does not the let the enemy's will to be imposed on him.'"

His words had a profound effect on her, unknowingly voicing something that Ayana had been harboring in her small chest for months. She stared at him for some time, taking in the somber and calculative look in his dark eyes, so much like her brother's and yet not possessing anymore of the childlike vigor and joy. She didn't know what possessed her to say it. But she found herself thinking that of everyone in this house, he would be the only one to understand the conflicting thoughts that had been clouding her mind as of late. "My parents are pacifists," she began. "They don't believe in war or violence. They said it doesn't lead to peace. But—" She paused trying to find the right words to express herself. "That's stupid because peace doesn't really exist, does it? If it did then, why would my brother—how could he—how could that happen in a time of peace?"

She wasn't sure if she was asking him or not, but Kaname took her question at face-value. "In my experience, peace has always been temporary. It never lasts long. It's an illusion like a mask people wear to cover their own innate savagery. War is really the only thing this world understands," he told her, then glancing down at the chessboard added. "Like this game, the whole concept is based on war." He captured another of Ayana's pawns on C4.

"How so?" She examined the board carefully, trying to see what he saw. After a moment's hesitation, she slid one of her light bishops forward one space. Kaname countered by moving his own pawn from C4 and capturing a knight on B3. Then Ayana slid a pawn forward to E3.

"Well, like chess, warfare is based on deception," he told her. "This chessboard is a battlefield laid out before you and each piece is a soldier, an officer, a general. You have to move your pieces in such a way in order to entrap the king. The strategy is to deceive your opponent into letting down their guard by appearing the opposite of what you are. Hence, when able to attack, you must seem unable; when using your forces, you must seem inactive; when you are near, you must make the enemy believe you are far away; when far away, you must make them believe you are near. Hold out pawns to entice them. Feign disorder, and then crush the opposition."

As he spoke, Kaname had systematically maneuvered his pieces until Ayana's king was backed into a corner. She hadn't even realized it was happening before it was too late. Now, scrambling to keep her king out the check position, she thought about what he was telling her. "So what you're saying is that the way to winning a game of chess is the same as winning a war?"

"Precisely."

"Then how do you win a war?" She asked. "Can you teach me?"

"Why would you want to learn something like that?" He pushed his queen forward finally entrapping her king. "Checkmate."

Ayana raised her eyes from the board and fixed them resolutely on his face. "Well, it's like you said. If peace is only temporary, then it would be necessary—No, essential—that I should know how war works and how to win a war. I don't want to be like my parents. I don't want to wait to be attacked."

"...I see," he hummed sounding mildly intrigued. "And what exactly do you intend to do with that knowledge? Will you wage a war?"

"If I have to," she said and Kaname tsked loudly.

"No," he shook his head. "Not have to. If you have to do something then you're not really in control. You have to want to. Do you want to wage a war, Ayana?"

"I want…" she paused. The truth is there was only one thing she knew with absolute certainty that she wanted. And it was the one thing she knew with absolute certainty she couldn't have. No amount of wishing or wars could ever bring back what she had lost. She was old enough to know that. But still—

Ayana's expression turned resolute as she met Kaname's gaze. "I want my brother back. But that's not gonna happen. You can't bring people back from the dead. So I'll settle for making those responsible hurt just as badly."

* * *

 

_***** Origami is the art of paper folding, which is often associated with Japanese culture. In modern usage, the word "origami" is used as an inclusive term for all folding practices, regardless of their culture of origin._

_****** The Art of War is an ancient Chinese military treatise dating from the Spring and Autumn Period (roughly 771 to 476 BC). The work, which is attributed to the ancient Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu ("Master Sun", also spelled Sunzi), is composed of 13 chapters. Each one is devoted to a distinct aspect of warfare and how that applies to military strategy and tactics. For almost 1,500 years it was the lead text in an anthology that would be formalized as the Seven Military Classics by Emperor Shenzong of Song in 1080. The Art of War remains the most influential strategy text in East Asian warfare.[1] It has a profound influence on both Eastern and Western military thinking, business tactics, legal strategy and beyond._

_******* Japanese word for mother._

_******** Japanese word for father_.

* * *

 

**XIV.**

Tis better, sir, to be brief than tedious.

Those happened to be words that Kaname agreed with wholeheartedly. Time is a valuable commodity. Even when you're immortal and time is seemingly endless for you, it becomes comparatively short for everyone else. It wasn't that the pureblood lacked patience. No, he was as patient as they come. But the world doesn't stop spinning for anyone and being aware of that and of the short-lived lives of those around him, relative to himself, Kaname knew that time was not something to be wasted in any capacity least you should lose a valuable chess piece to the clutches of mortality.

It was another matter entirely when the piece in question is not upholden to the same ephemeral status as the rest of the majority. In those circumstances, the wasting of time was practically a given because there is no urgency that would've been present in someone contemplating their transient existence. Time was of little consequence here. It was only a unit of measurement of what has passed and not how much was left.

"More coffee?" An unduly obliging waitress smiled down at him from where she stood over their table. She was pretty, for a human, with dark hair and equally dark eyes. But Kaname was more or less put-off by the helicopter-like way she hovered around them. Buzzing incessantly like a fly in his ear.

Ayana smiled knowingly at him from over the rim of her mug, her eyes alight with amusement at his plight. "No, thank you. Just the check, please," he said.

"Sure thing," she nodded and disappeared to do just that. Her hips swaying seductively in the tight, black uniform skirt. A licentious grinned stretched across his sister's face as she wiggled her eyebrows at him suggestively.

"You should ask for her number. Bet she'd give it to you," she said.

"No."

"Why not? She's gotta great ass." Ayana's eyes lingered on the retreating backside of the waitress appreciatively, "With a figure like that you know she works out. Probably yoga…"

"Stop staring at the waitress's ass," he scolded in a way not dissimilar to a mother educating a child on proper dining etiquette.

"Prude."

"Pig," he countered. Ayana smiled, oinking softly under her breathe as the waitress returned with the check. He watched as she flirted with the server until the other woman was a blushing, jittery mess. The playfulness of the exchange and the seemingly light-heartedness that his sister possessed had him heaving an internal sigh as he reached for his wallet in the confines of his jeans. Because they were incognito today, both Kaname and Ayana had seen it fit to dress way down from their usual attire with jeans and tee-shirts—or in Ayana's case a grey crop top and the tightest pair of black high-waisted skinny jeans he'd ever seen. Had it been Yuki, Kaname would've forbidden her from even stepping foot outside in such a salacious outfit. But with Ayana, he found, that there was something stopping him from vocalizing his discontentment. It didn't feel like his place anymore. There was too much distance, too much time, and not enough of an age gap (at least physically) for him to treat her like the girl she once was. In writing, he could forget for a time as she was still very much a child in heart and mind, but seeing her now, like _this_ and wearing _that_ , he was struck with the truth that in the time he had been sheltering one sister from the world, the other had been left to submerge herself in it, maturing with it, letting it age her like a fine wine.

He felt—Well, he didn't know what he felt. But he certainly didn't appreciate the looks the other men, and women too would give her. Like they were undressing her in their minds. _Hell, even the damn waitress!_

Perhaps if he had been a tad more self-aware, Kaname would've realized his internal monologue was beginning to sound a lot like possessiveness. If he had, he would've been sure to stop it right there, but as such he was too caught up in his mounting frustration. This morning hadn't gone how he had planned. He had thought that Ayana had planned to discuss only urgent matters, but it was now well past noon and the other pureblood had successfully thwarted any attempts he had made to get to the matter at hand. Which brought him back to the subject of wasting time. He was, by all means, a patient man, but Ayana had just about pushed him to his limit.

Kaname placed his American Express Black card in the checkbook and handed it back to the waitress. As she left, he couldn't stop himself from letting out a disgruntled scoff. "You're worse than Hanabusa," he said.

Ayana grinned at him, fluttering her eyelashes in a way as if to say: " _Who me?"_ When Kaname didn't smile back, her expression clouded to look more somber. "But seriously," she began, "you should ask for her number."

"No," he said again.

"Why?"

"Because I don't want it. She's not my type."

Ayana had to acquiesce to that point. "Okay, well if not her then someone else," she suggested.

"Why are you being so insistent?"

"Because you need to get laid," she told him. Kaname looked at her incredulously, but her expression didn't change. "I'm serious. Look at you," she gestured to him. "You're too tense. It's like you're stretched like a rubber band and about to snap. That's not good. Especially for us. You need to release some of that tension or it'll start to affect your decisions. When was the last time you got any?"

"I'm not discussing that with you."

"Why not? We're both adults here. And I know you're not an eunuch," she said.

"We're not here to discuss my sex life—"

"Or lack thereof," she quipped.

Kaname scowled. "Why do you insist on getting on my nerves at every opportunity?"

"Besides it being fun?" She asked. "I do it because no one else will."

"That's because only you seemed to lack a sense of self-preservation," he said.

"Oh, you would never hurt me," Ayana scoffed, brushing the very idea off as completely ludicrous. "You love me too much. Besides, think how dull your life would be without me."

"You say dull, I say peaceful."

"To-may-toe, to-mah-toe," she said before her attention was diverted when the waitress returned with the receipt. She thanked the woman for the excellent service, then picking up the receipt she read something off it that made her smile. "Guess you don't need to ask for her number after all," and she turned it around for Kaname to see the waitress's name and telephone number scrawled on the bottom of the receipt. "You sure you don't want it?" She asked again for what was beginning to feel like the umpteenth time.

"Positive."

Ayana shrugged and folded the receipt into the back pocket of her jeans. She took her pair of dark sunglasses that had been sitting atop her head while they had been in the small cafe and slipped them on, shielding her eyes from the sun. It was a beautiful summer afternoon, clear blue skies, and a balmy twenty-eight degrees. Kaname had situated himself so that he was out of direct sunlight with his back to the window in order to protect his sensitive eyes from the UV rays. But Ayana, demonstrating atypical vampire behavior, had sat directly in a sunbeam, letting the warm light bathe her in a golden glow. The combination of the light and the unnaturally physical beauty she possessed made her appearance to be almost otherworldly, even angelic in nature, and Kaname was unwittingly drawn to the sight.

"We still have some time before we have to be heading back," she observed checking the time on her wristwatch. "I think there's a park near here. Do you wanna take a walk with me?"

"Sure."

* * *

 

**XV.**

"How much longer do you intend to stall?" Kaname posed the question casually as they strolled through the small grove of _sakura *****_ trees. But Ayana didn't seem to hear, or she seemed more interested in admiring the leafy, green foliage overhead. "Ayana," He tugged gently on their intertwined hands, stopping abruptly in the middle of the path. "I won't move one more step until you tell me what all this is about," he told her when she finally looked up at him.

She sighed heavily and nodded. "I'm sorry. You've been a good sport about this whole thing. Part of me just wanted to spend some time with you away from all the pandering sycophants, but I suppose it's time I be frank with you. Lately, I've been questioning the parameters of our arrangement," she told him matter-of-factly.

"How so?"

Ayana paused, considering how to phrase her answer. "Well," she began, "when I was a child it made sense for you to make most of the decisions. Considering the dearth of knowledge that I had of the world and how things worked it was even necessary. But now ten years later, I no longer want to be treated as a child by you, Kaname. I'm no longer the naive child you sent off to Italy in a trunk. I've grown and learned and experienced things that you can no longer shelter me from."

"So what are you proposing exactly?" He asked.

"An equal partnership. We make decisions together. We plan this out together. No more going rogue or keeping me in the dark," she said. "I mean, I cannot do my job and protect you if you don't consult me before making decisions. This whole mess with Ichio—"

"Ah, so that's what this is about. You don't agree with business deals I've been making in your absence," he observed.

Ayana shook her head. "It not that I don't agree," she said. "It's that I don't understand your motives. I can't see any benefit in what you're doing. Why is he funding the majority of our research?"

"He has the money and a vested interest in it."

"Well, of course, he does. Everyone does. The blood tablets are completely changing how vampiric society functions. But I'm talking about my research. Why is he a major investor in my research? I thought that was something we were keeping out of the Inner Council's knowledge. And now I'm finding out that he's paying for our MRI machines?"

"It was. But circumstances have changed. You know as well as I do that Inner Council has implemented their spies at the academy. Even with all the vetting we've done, there was absolutely no way we could've caught all of them. People talk, things slip through the cracks and your special research group in Italy just so happened to be one of them. Besides you needed MRI machines, didn't you?"

"Yes, I do. But why did you decided to let him fund it? You said it yourself that that man was viper only waiting for the moment to strike. Do you know what my research can do in his hands? How much havoc and chaos he could unleash if he got his hands on that formula?"

"He doesn't know the details of what your research entails," Kaname was quick to reassure her, "only that it involves purebloods. He doesn't know that you're developing a vaccine for vampirism. Only that you're trying to slow the deterioration of level-E's. I've been very careful about what information gets back to him and he knows nothing that can put you or your research at jeopardy."

Ayana let out a heavy sigh, removing her sunglasses from her face, sliding them upwards to rest atop her head. She rubbed her eyes briefly, either because she was tired or because she was annoyed. "You still should've told me. I don't appreciate being kept out the loop. Especially with something this big," she said.

"I understand. I'll keep you informed in the future—"

"Oh no," she wagged her finger at him, "that's not good enough anymore. I don't want to just be informed. I want a say in the decisions, Kaname. I want autonomy when it involves myself, my team, and my research."

"Ayana be reasonable."

"I am being reasonable," she argued. "You're the one who's being unreasonable. I know you love to micromanage everyone and everything around you, but you can't do that anymore with me. I won't allow it. I won't become some pawn that you can use and then just discard whenever you see fit, nor will I allow you to do the same thing to my team."

Kaname was taken aback. "You really think that I would discard you?"

"I don't know, honestly. But I do know that you don't have a good track record of keeping people around once they've fulfilled their purpose. I don't intend to become one of your casualties."

The siblings stared each other down, neither one willing to relent. Kaname was honestly a bit bruised by her words. Did she so wholeheartedly not trust him at all? After all this time and everything he has done for her? "There are always casualties in war, Ayana. That is an unavoidable fact, however, I had no intention of using you as cannon fodder," he said.

"But you don't want us to be partners. You want me to be your Stepford-sister."

She was misunderstanding him. That's not what he desired at all. He didn't want a puppet nor did he want a servant. He wanted, no, he needed an ally, a confidant, someone who he could trust to work with him instead of against him. But Kaname was beginning to wonder whether or not Ayana could fulfill that role, or if she even wanted to at all anymore. This whole conversation was starting to bring up doubts in his mind.

"That's not it. I want to keep you out of harm's way. As my sister, my kin, my legacy I want to keep you safe." He spoke slowly, deliberately, trying to get his real meaning across. However, it was clearly ineffective.

Ayana scoffed. "Oh, save that protective-oniisama-crap for Yuki. I'm not buying it. You're just scared."

"Of what?" He asked.

"Of letting people in. Of trusting people. Of losing someone you care about again. Of being betrayed. But you can't go through your life living like that. You have to open yourself up to people eventually."

His was beginning to lose his patience as his heckles started to rise. There was only so long that someone could be verbally attacked and not defend themselves. Hence was the reason why he said what he said next. "How can I open up to you when you've done everything in your power to oppose me at every opportunity? If you want me to trust you then you have to put a little faith in me as well."

"I have put my faith in you."

"When? Because if this conversation is anything to go by, you have zero faith in me. You're making me out to sound like some kind of amoral sociopath. So when, Ayana, when have you trusted me?"

Ayana's face was slightly flushed, her expression one of frustration and disbelief. She couldn't believe what she was hearing. Where in the hell as he been the last ten years, or for that matter the last sixteen? If he truly thought that she never trusted him, then he sure as hell hasn't been paying attention. Did he really think that if she didn't trust him she would've left him to look after Yuki? Did he think that all those long twenty-page letters she sent to him over the years where she divulged some of her worst fears and anxieties was her not trusting him? Did he really think that if she didn't trust him that she wouldn't have done everything to boot him out of her brother's body by now without any concern for his original body? The very thought of it made her blood boil and she had to stop herself from cursing at him.

_That insufferable, stubborn, pig-headed—_

Getting angry wasn't going to solve anything. It was just making this situation escalate. Ayana knew she needed to calm down and approach this rationally. If she wanted to get what she wanted, she knew the damn bastard was only going to respond well to calm, collected arguments based solely on facts. Releasing a deep breath, she tried speaking to his better nature. "That day when you promised to bring Kaname back to me. You promised me. You said that if I helped you then you would do everything in your power to get me my brother back. And since that day I've trusted you explicitly," she told him. "I've done everything you've ever asked me to do. I trusted you to watch out for Yuki while I was in Italy. I'm just asking for a little _quid-pro-quo_ here. I want to be involved in the decision making."

"Of course, this is about him. He's all you ever cared about."

_Ugh, I want to strangle him._

"That's not true. I care about you too." She walked forward and grabbed his face, bringing his face down to her level. "Sebatos, look at me. You may not have been born as my brother, but these past sixteen years you've been more of a brother to me than he ever was. This is as much about protecting you as it is him. I want you both to be safe. But how can I guarantee that I can protect either of you if you don't let me in on what the masterplan is? I j-just I can't stand the thought of losing you. Either of you."

Kaname stared back at her. The earnest look in her eyes told him that she wasn't lying. She truly believed what she was saying, and for a moment Kaname felt guilty for jumping to conclusions. Of course, she trusted him. She had never given him any indication that she didn't. And here he was, fighting with her because he couldn't relinquish a tiny bit of control. It wasn't even like she was asking for much. Placing his own hands over hers, he leaned forward until his forehead was resting against her cheek and whispered, "You're not going to lose me."

"You can't guarantee that. Everyone is expendable, remember? Even you. Even me."

Leaning back, Kaname brushed a strand of her hair behind her ear, stroking the apple of her cheek with the soft pad of his thumb. "Listen," he started, "you're right in this life there are no guarantees. Nonetheless, I'm in this world for a little while longer to defend the Kurans, to protect my blood, and repair my legacy. You and Yuki are my family and as long as I am in this body, I've promised to be your brother and as your brother, I have to protect you from certain perils."

"That's what I'm trying to tell you," she said. "You don't have to protect me so much anymore. I'm grown. I'm raised. I've learned to protect myself. I'm not helpless. You don't need to coddle me anymore."

"I know."

"You do?"

"Yes, you're a grown woman. I'm not oblivious to that fact. But you're still so very much a child in your experiences. So I'm sorry, but I cannot give you full autonomy." Ayana opened her mouth to protest, but Kaname placed a finger over her lips. "However as long as we can agree that we're working towards the same goal, I will confide in you before I make any more sudden moves and you can advise me on what you think is best. Is that a fair enough compromise?"

"And what about my team? My research?" She asked.

"A servant can only have one master. Your team, your rules. However, you have to keep me informed on all your research and activities and theirs as well. We don't need any surprises. Do we have a deal?"

Ayana nodded. "I can live with that," she said.

"Good." Kaname released her and she him, letting their hands drop to their sides. He cast a quick glance at his wristwatch and proposed that they start heading back to the academy. "On the way, you can get me up to date on your research and fill me in on this team of yours?"

"Okay."

* * *

 

**_*_ ** _Sakura is Japanese for Cherry Blossom. Cherry Blossom Trees are very common in Japan and they usually have a flowering period between late-March and Early-April._


End file.
